Skip to main content

Full text of "Your Spectrum Magazine Issue 05"

See other formats 


i 


No.5  July  85p 


&QLUSER 


GRAF  PAD  REVIEW 


The  High- Res  Tablet 


DIALLING  THE  WORLD 


Info-casting  On  A  Spectrum 


Imagine  a  ferret  in  a  hardware  shop 

\ot  something  you'd  forget.  That's  how  ihe 
I  .ink  word  System  helps  you  re  member  thai  the 
Spanish  for  "hardware  shop"  is   k\i  rri n  rm    . 

You'll  remember  thai  ihe  French  for  "fish"  is 
"poisson"  by  imagining  poisoning  your  pet  fish, 

I  sing  I  inkword  >ou'll  learn  over  350  words  in 

onh  10  hours,  Ihafs  :i  quarter  of  (he  lime  it 
would  normally  lake.  Knough  for  holidays, 
business  trips  abroad  or  help  with  homework. 
Stan  from  scratch,  and  it's  amazing  how  quick!) 
you  learn  a  basic  grammar  and  Micattttfctf-} , 

SJhrfMifl  ltd,  l.nndnn  Hnov,  271   27J  Klnf  Si.  I  ondnn  H6  MJE 


link  word  courses  in  French,  derrnan  and 
Spanish  arc  now  available  from  Sihcrsotl  for  (He 
4KK  Specimm  home  computer,  and  there  are 
more  to  come  soon* 

They're  the  biggest  thing  in  languages  since  ihe 
Tower  of  Babel. 


i  4Mi«i4i  ii*.  t 


m&**m  TOij-tw.  i 


N  jrni 


pitiMr  i"  **%irfwll  1  Ml. 


fctitifm 


l*.-*i..-i»p 


25 


Spectrum  Control  Penny  Page 
looks  back  at  Project  2.  inviting 
Christopher  Ashford  to  play  piano 
on  the  Spectrum. 


37 


ZX  Phone  Home  Computerised 

bulletin  boards  are  the  next  'big 

thing*  claims 

SQ  Factor 

—  find  out 

how  to  get 

hooked  up 

to  a  phone 

fast. 


HEB    «CH 


29 


The  Luck  Of  The  Draw  For  all 
you  Hi-res  artists,  Henry  Budgett 
looks  in  general  at  the  state-of-the- 
art  and,  in  particular.  British 
Micro's  Grafpad. 


49 


Getting  Attached  To  Printers 

Accessing  the  entire  Spectrum 
character  set  on  a  professional 
printer  is  no  mean  feat  —  without 
Dilwyn  Jones'  help  that  is. 


63 


Unzipping  ZIP  Now  you've  got 
your  ZIP  compiler,  Simon 
Goodwin  details  its  operation. 


75 


Interface  Zero  Throwing  chips  to 

the  wind,  Simon  Goodwin  comes 
up  with  the  goods  on  a  joystick 
interface  you  can  build. 


Thrills  From  The  Quill  Fed  up 
with  playing  other  people's 
adventures?  Thomas  Green  takes  a 
look  at  a  package  that  allows  you  to 
write  your  own. 


A  Process  of  Philosophy  Why 

did  Sinclair  Research  abandon  its 

favourite  processor  when 

starting  development  of 

the  QLV  Answers 

to  this  question, 

and 

others 

inside. 


RE    1/L 


Frontline** .*«,„*, *3 

Rags  or  news  and  views  on  all 
the  latest  hardware  and 
software. 

Top  20  Garnet 14 

June's  chafMopptn  u  voted 
by  you  the  readers 

Forum 19 

Speak  up  for  yourselves.  —  this 
is  you  r  lette  ra  page  after  all! 

Speclrolyiti  . . .  . 21 

Negotiate  streams  and 
channels  with  I&n  Beardsmone. 

Back  tuuei ,  »..*»**>.*.*.  J3 
U  yrm've  missed  out  on  our 
earlier  editions,  fill  thai  gap  tn 
your  life. 

A  Chance  Encounter 34 

Tom  Baker  puts  back  the 
"random"  m  RANDOMIZE. 

Sped  rum  Soft 52 

Chiltern  Computer  Club  look 
the  latest  software  up  into  the 
hills  to  give  us  their  unbiased 
Hand  panoramic)  views 

Rumble* «*.«*.* ., 56 

Ron  Smifh,  software  sleuth, 
reassembles  the  rumours 

Subscription!.  ........  +  h  ,  62 

DorM  Name  u.s  if  pou  miss  a 
copy  in  the  shops,  take  a  tub. 

Paper  Data , .  .69 

John  F  ten  fey  checks  out  the 
current  bookshelf  offering  far 
the  PI  Y  buff. 

INPUT/OUTPUT 77 

Make  friends,  publicise  your 
club,  swop  your  software. 

Program  Power 78 

Peter  Shu  w  invito  you  \q  lap  in 
his  latest  masterpiece. 

^Hlf  XfW     Tll*+i#l+«+    +    vr.---      r    vtw 

Phil  Manchester  unveils  ihc 
secrets  of  Vafhalla  with  Jan  and 
John  Peel. 


by 


y+r  phi 

I  ah  He 


Hmnel 


Fd  Uor  Rofrr  M  wnftwd .  Maaaalnf  Editor  Bruce  Sfl  wf o#d.  Dapa  tv  fcdiiivr  Tina  H.aU  n .  Trth  nkal  E  dhor  Peir  t  Stia  w.  Ed  Eiorii  I  Con  i  oltnnt  Andre  m  penne  It ,  Voftwar*  Coa 
aalbatf  GawMoriL;  ContribMlorf  fc«i  HmisJi,  l*n  Branjirnof*  AhnitL^fKtf  Aihfo^i,  Henry  Budjptt,  Fenn*  Page.  SQ  Faci<>r.  Tufti  Raicr.  Dil*->  n  Ji*nc  v  f  he i  hi  hem  Tom 
py*ff  Oun,  Thorn  it  Green.  SjinonGrodwin.  John  Klenlet ■,  Phil  Manchester.  An  Fdltnr  H ■»!  Bennington;  Alt  Aulltanl  Sievr  Broadhurct;  Adtt  rlitcmcnl  Menuer  Shan* 
Campbell.  Arffifl^emenl  Etfttatffcra  Nik  Sana:  I ypttrntni  M*n*f«r  Derek  Cohen,  Tip#f*1tef*  Beverley  Douglas  Ma#&*  Kiyle).  Vdma  Miller  Production  Man* 
Soma  Hum,  Group  An  Director  Prrry  Seville,  PuhlLihrr  Steve  E-neJaml  PuhNinrd  h%  H|*r 
repslcrc-djnlinplftni!  1elfpRL>nc  j  ill  department*)**]  fi  1 1  1  4.1.1    t  tlt\  ■■*  -"Ml  A«  BuncfcG  fcf 

CatnfriH  Dlrtrttwllo-SfymourF'rrNx   vUBfulflnRfudL-nniiwlSWy  Tclcrti  mf^l  "*  W4I44  AtlmileniiinYmie  Speelmm  r  iWUFfJ 
rrmxlucfd  in  whuk  or  in  pan  wtthoai  writwn  ajflrnn  nf  ihc  publisher*.  Your  Sperinim  it  a  monthly  puhlu:  juon 


en*  Spcdaliii  Prwi  Ud.  14  RaihWic  Place,  Lwdon  W I P  1  DF  Ci^mpm) 
due  1 1  o«  U  r  ar*K  We  a  * .  I ,oncU*i.  Printed  by  Chase  Wrtfc  Offiet,  3t  Austc  1 1 , 

"t!de«Pradu£tiiVH.i,nd  FniyofHt* 


CON  Q  U  EST  A  tactical  game  which  even  veteran 

players  will  find  both  chaffering  and  rewarding, 

Mediterranean  Europe  5  divided  into  grid  squares.  Your 

am.  as  Emperor,  a  to gpin  1 00  squares  of  territory  as  quickly  as 

possble  -  at  the  same  time  dealing  with  Barbanan  counter - 

attada  piagjei  civil  war  and  rival  Emperors, 

S  leveh  of  skill  plus  a  continuous  Conquest' game  where 

alti^oMIkwl^*^ 


ID  BAT  ATTACK  An  all  action,  3  dimensional 
maze  game  where  you  gather  up  blocks  of  gold,  at  the  same 
time  pitting  your  wrte  against  vicious  vampire  bats  whose 
orJy  purpose  in  life  is  to  locate-  hunt  and  kill  you, 

4  levels  of  skill.  At  each  level  the  game  gets  faster  and 
more  complicated,  and  the  vampires  more  dangerous. 


FOR  SPECTRUM  48K 


THE  REST  IS  KIDS  STUFF. 

Arc  you  ready  for  ChcctahSoft?  So  don  t  play  unless  you're  ready 

There  s  only  one  way  to  find  out.  to  play  the  game  for  real  Because  you  1 1 

But  be  warned :  these  vampire  bats  know  fi  nd  there 's  one  sure  thing  about 

a  good  meal  when  they  see  one.  And  our  CheetahSoft;  Soft  were  not. 

friend  with  the 

scythe  has  had  years 

of  experience , . ;    (Tjjf^ 

Soft  welre  not  / 


£6.95  at  all 
good  stores. 


ill*  ■-nl^b  I 


<»N  Uf  f*.f  1  la  Cfe*tak»Fr  lit  J4  l*r  Start  (m4*#  ICK   T*J   D  I  *  13  IM  J 


ABF 


JOYSTICKS 


~     =      r 


INTERFACES 


Programmable  Interface 


Hardware  prou/emmed  ihri  inter  1.*ei!  attaint 
Joyitick  of  Trackball  eompjTibiiuv  with  AIL 
Spectrum  or  ZX6J  software. 

Without  internal  memorm  or  tape*  to  load  the 
direct  Jddrttim^  mode  otfen  the  Feitoit  com 
puttr   refponH    lu   controller    movement   wirh 

pf  pgrirpiniin^  btmg  retained  w+ien  the  power  it 
off 

Eight    directional    canabihtv    «    automatically 

achieved  by  juii  letting  up,  down  left  and  ri«gffoL 

Tne  hardware   approach  n  totally  compatible 

aiT*i    all   key  rftidinq  technique*  unlike  frwrnory 

[i' aqr^mmed  device* 

SuppMttJ  witri  Quick  Reference  GartH.  to  speed 
up  letting  to  your  favounlt  pm«,  demon 
i  if  a  turn  catieue  and  twelve  month*  guarantee, 


26.95 


plus  £1  post  &  packing 


4  s    RomSlot 


,uur  chance  io  unite  the  ^^my  worrd  ol   mitent 

Loading  ginv« 

Ajl  ROM  Cartridge  software  e«n  be  k*y bo+rd  Controlled  to  i 
joyltkcfc  il  not  ttler.lijl 


Only  high  tauaiity  program*  art  available  on  ROM  end  ioon  a 
whole  r*r*  fenge  i«  W  be  launched  by  Parker  Games  aKcfcuifvetv 
on  catndjp.  for  the  Spectrum 

RomSlql'i  unique    Game  Relief*'  will  re*! art  the  g*me  tl  any 
I  during  pity   When  no  game  cartridge  H  ifl  y«  Xhif  beComri 
a  useful  computer  ftiet  faculty  ^om  crashes  or  convenhonaL 
machine  code  program* 

RomSiof  ri  fully  compafibli  wuh  ail  otha*  add  on ■  via  a  fear 
connector  and  McAteti  &*d  fully  guaranteed  lor  twerve  montm 


Interface  II 
9.95 


ttat  -ixi#iath)>^i  #»  #*i  iwqiartgfl  ran  4***nw  n* 

•*r . mr  **«:h  rfi^i.  aito  »ri#«|i|  » m  »•  U  #«™  •**«  * 

ee  ei  -*hpi  Seta*  u*>te#*L 


Quickshot  II 


only  11.95 


plus  50p  post  &  pocking 


Quickshot 


v»- 


+*\  .p*  ii  ;       a  viVV  *  i*Q 


-  !*l»  PiM '#i1  ^-U  *li-%M  *te 


i  oj  ■  *•  ajiu 


rP    ,VwkJ 


■"I  *'  D 


OVERSEAS  PRICES  ON  APPLICATION 
DEALER   ENQUIRIES  WELCOME 


PHOTON 

wraith/ disassembler 
for  48K  2X  Spectrum 

im  ASSEMBLY  LANGUAGE  PROGRAMS 
WITHOUT  TEARING  YOUR  HAIR  OUT! 

bit  all  captaalan  Stitlrum  hn  ■  nthir  irkia**  Incur*  n  ImMvlli 
tallows  tbi  lai  tmrtiaat  ibat  wi  «i  aallf  |»  •  it  IMTi*l " » •f*f  d  w»*t nnv 
It  llM  in  timet  rat  I  wi  ihouflhl  hi  Nivi  Brvt.n  il .  in  «  ward    BUGS 

II  rami  itfiaaint  it  Iftra  ZIO  iiiHn»lir  Itapuit  tr  irt  in  accaav 
pJuhtd  proflfimmtr  \fau\l  ippntiiti  1hi  fiat  md  tffwt  I  hit  ffltt  ifltt 
r i m* tin |  t*  m  I  h  •  ■  uulltal  to g p  A|  f  | G I N  S OFTW  AR £  ft  t  HIP  1 0  cht All  til 
tKn  *nd  miki  ?  ou  ■  b«Ttu  iFtgriflnmtr  too  S^wvpl?  if  «MUfl|  fttiti|fia| 
Mticitr  tut4  Mtiif   fifrtnt  raw  mtft  UlH  II  CIMtf  liaiidonil  artflitmi 

Oif  PHOTO M  caalami  ■  laaiiili  ajuiiinilai  I tit  talf  5p*cinin  dn 
aaaamiiir  fiat  wtani  laaili!)  tad  aa  ti taai  licilnv  ia  ardt*  ta  rijirh  can 
irpl  tihm  a  crati  Hnffeauf  linua,  jt*r  pratitii  michim  cedt  Mmi 
naparfaalrr  fitafi,  PHOTON  caAtami  a  wruih  tiat  mil  mp  chrqugh 
aaaibiai  caii  raatina  taa  iailr»ttiaa  tl  *  nmi  |mnj  ■  dually  if  lii  c*n- 
laati  al  ill  ravulan  aad  flagi  a  if  in  ltd  ifiir  Tit  tarrant  mif  ruction 
amauaiti  af  tfivjaii  ntuutiiMi  nick  ttlailt  a*d  inlinupt  if  if  an 
tittm  So  tii  iufi  art  viiy  laiy  ta  ifoT  unci  you  can  idintrty  fit  aiacni 
pan  I  *l  which  Ehi  flD  ricm  lomtlhirvf  ftu  did!  I  Wtfll  If  ta  do 

Fudhirman,  ■  nrhol*  hail  o!  tin  iHifil  rout  mi  «ti  Mting  inlRt  11011  (vie 
waiting  I  if  ijih  to  ui  ■  thorn  PHOTON  mil  ihawf  aa  haw  lUtit  wart  (ttap  if 
nap |  at  tKfi  f#a  can  iaw  mat  and  HAM  whan  writing  four  aragiiftii 

PHOTON  ii  a  lull  calash  hum  irwaa  aiatRtHt  cadi  aragnm  tad  n 
ic^onponiorf  if  caiaaraianinra  Mutnfclwai    fodtr  lodiv  iad  iub  pinf 

wu 

Saa^ctoojva/pa  farCIQ.K  l.mc  afca  MirwhifiMi  E1EEN  SOFTWAR* 
45  Banc  rot!  RaatV  Wiafcaa.  Ciaiitri  WU  OLR 


H4>  =  £0 

EIGEN  SOFTWARE 


create  reality 


f  HE  PIOFISSIOiAL 

PLANNER 
ANTON t  (AN  USE 


#  Perfoflly  pragremmad  ta  pradwt  FAST 
1IIKITS  I  CASH FIOWS  for  thf  ytar 
aitod 

*  Sup*r  qvKi  up  doting  ftaltffn  inxlatb 
IOLL-F0RWARD  H  ihot  mti  maaifo 
td*h  ilow  ii  vimplioty  iu*lf 

#  find  d uf  In st  bow  f o  gtl  rial  a v»r draff  c vt 
da  w«  ta  liiL 

*  CASH-PLANNER  i  nuiabtf-Hn1f|  i|i- 
fem  and  dhplay>  orr  a  df  light. 

*  FORGET  firmly  tpraadtkaah  and  com- 
pl«i  nanaoh  -  marhiae  code  sound  and 
colour  with  suptfi  an  urttn  ititrv^iani 
guide  you  obng. 

it  N  a  natd  I  q  t  n  I  c  r  and  law  bf|  one  chfrquai 
and  (oih  poymanH,  Ynu  know  the  bad 
■wi  Whoi  tbeol  Ik  firlwre. 

#  A  minimum  nf  typing  in  plui  ipolly  t«sy 
ofdafts  wilt  makf  liii  four  Idvoun^ 
pi  on  ling  nsiilaai, 


AN#*i  ta  ii  10  aaan  af 
iwiai/tifMaVtiif  mtb 
bail 1 1  <rta  tint* 


iilAi    U    HO  ail 

SMALL  UiH  I  SI 


priUlf    aJv*   bi    dattM 

«tl  Bur  Uflt+*rt1  PLUS 

hip    Bnitf    ftar    H»lr 


mm  OROfR  H.50  to  OR  conza  software  (ts) 

75  AL1ERT  ROAD  WISTF  I0LT0N  111  5HW 

(kawbiai  ui*wK*.t  oioi  447T7) 


ELECTRIC  SOFTWARE 

THEY  SAY  THE  WORLD 
WILL  DIE 
IN 


Jietive  qualities     861  _    CRASH 
Value  for  rooriey       891"     Micro 


iaaaanta 

OB AP+liC  LOCATIONS 

L  A«Q£  VOCADULAnv 

*S»«f  WATig##$  ACCtPTED 

•UMCDIATE  nf  IPQHSE  f IHES 

AM  AUAZiNO  UHBE  Of  HUMOMft 

FULL  W»rnyCTIQf«  ON  LQA^aMI 

1004*  UACIOHJ  CCXK 

Save  Game 
feature 


ONLY  C4-5CM 


Send  P O /cheque ta 
Electric  software 

13  Clarendon  Road 
London  E11  1BZ 

48K 
SPECTRUM 


H  yew  *#  wrr|i*A  ***  g»ti  ^oa/ipn«fi*«  wi  oo*r  wp 

PfKHW  oi  j*  r  ai»t  u*n»uf  aMarn*  pt»«w  wwtn 

IH4  Iptv*  your  n«nbi  #n<9  n^fflfc*!  ^M  pddf«*  •"* 


RAINBOW  S  SPECTRUM 

PROGRAMMABLE 

JOYSTICK  INTERFACE 

WITH  SOUND 

NOW  IMPROVED 

*    7h0  keyboard  is  MOT  dr^bted  when  using  the  Joystick, 
*    ¥o«j  can  Aa  vt  *  Through  Port  -  See  Below 


PflOGRAMMABLF   - 

UNIVERSAL  - 
AMPLPf  IEO  SOUND 

EASY  TO  USE 
AOAPTA&LE  - 


pr/V  Dm 


ONLY  £24 

Extra  for 
Through  Port 

plus  £1  p&p 

Send  Cheque  or  P  O  to  Rainbow  £lcc trenlc* 

Glebe  House  .South  Leigh.  Witney. Oxfordshire  OX8  6  XJ 
TeL  Witney  {0993)  5«32  fMt 


CHEER  UP    II  LICENCE  TO  QUELL 


HARD  COPY 


Cheltenham  based 
Euroelettronics  \ 
produced  i  piece  of 
software  for  Spectrum 
owners  called  Cm 
ftaf-.that  will  allow 
the  company 
ZX  LPKINT  Centronics 
and  R3232  interfaces  to 
reproduce  four  colour 
printing  on  the  NUT  40 

fad}  COP  1 15 
pnm». 

There  are  two  versions 
available,  far  £5-50 
each.  The  first  ts  in 
machine  ©ode  for  the 
issue  3  model,  while  for 
:ri  of  earlier  models 
or  ot  her  in  anuf act  Lire  r"  * 
interfaces  the  other 

version  is  written  in 

Basic, 

Phone  'em  on  0242 
542009. 


There  \  still  some 
confusion  surrounding 
the  ami- copying  system 
developed  by  Jim 
Lam  one.  of  JCL  Data  — 
that's  the  one  that  was 
banned  by  the  Ministry 
of  Defence  when  a 
pnteni  vi as  first  applied 
tuse  n  might 
cd  to  be  a  risk 

lo  British  teewttj 

The  commonly  held 
belief  ii  that  the  new 
(post  MoDl  system  is 
only  now  being  produced 
because  no  patent  has 
been  applied  for  — 
which  nutans 
nothing  can  be  done  to 
prevent  us  i.  is 

the  vie*  held  by  GOSH 
(Guild  oi  Software 
Houses)  member.  Rod 

Cousins,  Who  is  firmly  in 
favour  of  anything  thai 
will  prevent  piim 
However.  Jim  Lamont 


THE  WRITING  ON  THE 


SCREEN 


In  the  Dark  Ages  of  the 
Spectrum,  the  only  light 
pen  to  be  had  w  as  a 
nearly  useless  convened 
biro  from  a  company 
that  now  concentrates  or 

■:,  two  new 
light  pens  have  arm  ed 
on  the  scene  —  one  from 
Trojan  and  the  other  i* 


manufactured  by  CO, 
Both  are  custom-made 
light  pens,  and  both  lire 
supplied  with  user- 
friendly  soft  war 

The  Trojan  Pen 
119.95  and 

from  PSL  Murker mg  on 
0582  591493  The  CC1 
.  tl  5       details  on 
0799  25014, 


PAPERING  OVER  THE 


CRACKS 


Sometimes  it's  a  pain  to 
have  to  order  your 
computer  stationery  well 
in  advance  of  running 
out,  io  M'Hire  Paragon 
has  launched  a  range  of 
continuous  stationery 
catted  Blue  Chip  which 

uUble  stxM 
through  high  itn 


stationers  and  computer 
dealers.  The  first  two 
products  will  appear  as 
easy- it*  carry  boxes  of 
5  DO  forms      green 
musk- ruled  for  dac.t 
listing,  and  plain  Kir 
Edge  for  letters  and 
graphics 


explains.  "The  current 
system,  for  which  I  have 
applied  and  been  granted 
a  patent,  is  ha&ed  on  one 
of  my  very  early  ideas". 
And  while  u 
apparently  not  di  similar 
[i  i  i  he  one  banned  by  the 
MoD,  it  s  only  about  95 
percent  efficient, 
whereas  the  other  was 

■  irtu:ill>\  if  not  totally, 
'crackproof .  All  of 
which  seems  to  jiugj^ 
the  MoD  thinks  national 

ritj  MUld  be  at  risk 
if  private  companies  or 
individuals  had  the 
capability  to  store 
taformalion  thai  u.is 

beyond  the  teach  ol 
■  ity 

■  ■!  .•..■ni>;iiioiis  Pcrhapi 
Ofwcira/9Wii  walls 
with  us  after  all. 

Mr  Lamoni  went  on  to 
explain  that  JCL  Data 
will  be  offering  a 


complete  service  to 
interested  companies*  by 
supplying  them  with  the 
I-,I"kV  of  the  sj  stem  he 
jj  allowed  to  sell  —  for 

b  they  will  pay  a 
fee,  and  from  which  they 
will  be  able  to  produce 
their  own.  customised 
devices.  He  says,  "Once 
this  has  been  done, 
companies  must  return 
i  ^  copies  of  each 
system  to  us.  by  j 
One  will  be  retained, 
unopened,  to  prove  • 
which  date  it  had  b#en 
implemented,  and  the 
other  sent  to  the  Trading 
Standards  office.  After 
[Ins.  anyone  caught 
trying  to  break  the  'code" 
(so  to  speak*  will  be 
taken  to  court  by  JC I 
for  breaking  patent 
regulation  v"  Air 
would  be  paid  for  out  of 
the  previously  collected 


I  WANT  MONEY. . 


Those  with  more  money 
than  they  know  what  to 
do  with  —  or  no  money 
i  which  is  just  as  difficult 
to  organise  >  —  may 
appreciate  a  couple  of 
new  programs  designed 
to  help  tnem  Wfl 
lUL 
The  first  is  Home 
ffudf*rt>  a  package  that 
lets  out  [■  -  enable  people 
Io  keep  track  of  finances 
.tmj  build  up  a  file  of 
incomes  and 
expenditures.  These  can 
be  used  in  what  if 
calculations,  and  income 
and  expenditure  can  be 
produced  tncl&tj 
tabulated  form  or  as  a 
bar  chart,  All  data  can 


be  togged  for  date  and 
lime  and  is  secufii; 
coded  by  the  user.  For 
11 1-  ire  information,  chase 
up  Kuma  Computers  Ltd 
on  07357  43^5. 

The  second  program, 
from  Sine  lair  Research, 
is  called  tVtikh?Tax 
Calculator.  It's  a 
personal  tax  program 
that  will  reckon 
accurately  the  true 
amount  or  tax  owed  for 
the  1483-1984  year,  lis 
been  written  to  include 
all  relevant  basic  UK  tax 
rates  and  allowances  and 
is  divided  into  three 
see  Lions:  the  first  defines 
personal  circumstances 
and  job  earnings. 


MARVELLOUS  NEWS 


AH  fans  of  Marvel 
comics,  capes  at  the 
ready,  cos  it's 
Superhero  time! 
Adventure  Internationa] 
{UK)  Ltd  is  launching 
the  dm  graphic 
adventure  computer 
ume  featuring  the 
incredible  Hulk. 
Adventure  International 
in  America  has  signed  a 
licensingdeal  with  the 
Marvel  E  ntc  rtai  nmc  n  I 

i  p  to  produce  a 
series  of  software 
adventure  games 
featuring  such  Marvel 
superfolfc  as  Spidermiin, 
Captain  America  and.  of 


course,  the  Hulk. 

Mike  Woodixrffe  in 
the  UK  office  explains 
thai  "Mwvtl  will 
produce  a  comic  to  go 
with  each  game.  The 
vtorvlinc  Lilefl  M  ■ 
certain  point  and  you 
h,ne  to  go  in  the  tape  to 
continue  the  adventure 

Iff  welt  have  the 
chance  to  actually  take 
part  in  the  adventures, 
and  as  Mike  WcKximffe 
points  out  "the  potential 
is  tremendous".  This 
could  rL\i3h  he 

something  to  look 
forward  to, .  . 

Marvel  Comic*  Group 


licence  fee*.  So  far, 
JCLS  device  has 
attracted  favourable 
attention  not  onfy  from 
GOSH,  but  also  the 
Trading  Standiu 
Office,  the  Consumer 
Protection  Bureau  and 
the  Fraud  Squad 

The  software  industry 
is  already  showing 
interest  in  the  device,  in 
particular  some  tape 
duplicating  companies. 

BR  Magnetics,  lor 
example,  has  already 
applied  for,  and  been 
granted*  a  licence.  And 
A&F  Software  is 
curremlv  customising  the 
system  lor  its  own  um 
A&Pv  Mike  Fit/gcrald 
says, fc  We Ve  trie 
and  are  quite  happy. 
Anything  thai  prevents 
or  discourages  piracy 
must  be  a  good  thing  for 
the  industjy  as  a  whole." 


including  overtime  and 
>«n 
two  contain!  questions 
on  additional  income  like 
pensions,  social  security 
benefits  and  investment 
income;  and  the  third 
Coven  personal 
allowances  and 
outgoing 

The  package  in  priced 
at  £1 2. 95  and  comes  on 
cassette  with  a  59  page 
reference  manual  If 
available  mail  order 
from  Sinclair  Research 
Ltd  ( phone  U 

I  H  and  through 
■elected  retar 
You  nc\CT  knou      the 
cassette i  mi  phi  end  up 
l;i\  deductible' 


ANTICIPATION  OVER 


For  all  of  you  out  there 
who've  been  watting 
with  breathless 
anticipation  for  the 
results  of  our  Am  Attack 
Compeii  lion  from  i**ue 
2B  here  they  are  at  last. 
Our  first"  prize  w  inner 
was  Michad  Kipling 
from  London  and  he  was 
invited  up  to  Prism's 
luxurious  offices  to 
.nLkc!  his  ph/es 
Needle* v  to  *a>  he 
wasn't  expected  to  can 
the  whole  lot  home  an 
the  tube,  hui  he  did  just 
about  manage  lo  take  the 
hardware  with  him, 
W  e  thought  we'd 
better  question  him  on 
how  he  managed  what 
we  con  side  red  to  be  a 
pretty  awkward  game 
and  his  reply  was:  M  Well 
it  look  me  about  a  week 
to  get  through  alt  the 
levels,  awl  then  on  the 
phone- in  day  it  look  four 
hour*  to  find  the  bo* 
marked  AMMO 
Thai's  pretty  fast;  if  he 
keep*  that  up  he  It 
probahly  be  through  the 
software  prizes  in  a 
couple  of  months! 


Pictured  here  arc 
(from  left  to  right!  Bruce 
Sawfr»d *  our  Managing 
Editor.  Roger  Mtmra, 
our  manic  Editor. 
Michael  himself  an  J, 
finally.  Bob  Denton. 
Managing  Director  of 
Prism. 

Three  other  people 
will  prim  of  £  I  (XI  worth 
QffOftwifQ  tlld  the>  are 
JCatteyof  East 
i  "okheswr,  Essex, 
new  Spasion 
Leicester  and  Richard 
O via  from  St.  Albans. 
Could  these  three  write 
to  us  confirming  their 
addresses.  The  following 
25  winners  each  receive 
a  yearns  subscription  to 
this  wonderful  magazine 
and  we'd  tike  them  to 
write  into  us  with  their 
enact  addresses  and 

infurmHtioH  CM  when 

they'd  hie  their 
subscriptions  to  start 

Here  goes, .  .David 
Green.  Sheffield; 
Christopher  Hall* 
Belfast.  Mark  Sum  an 
{unintelligible  address); 
Ian  Kerns,  Hayes, 
Middlesex;  David 


ITS  ACE! 

| 

Hay  ...wowiThi  **r*>  Ac*  Joyatlck  t*  poc«d  at 
C1  3-05  and  {it  myt  h*r*)  it  robustly  CantlfuCfid 
With  parliculnr  imphim  on  it*  *»«  of  uw. 
Thtr*'i  ■  c*ntra  Fif*  but  Ian  plua  a  dual  action 
Fir*  button  on  t  h*  front  of  th*  baa*  for  laft*  and 
right-hand  playing  Ijuit  call  ma  Andy  Daftfroui}. 
Th*  •  Hitch**  on  th*  Pre  Ac*  hava  baan 
d*tt ruction  tattad  to  ovara  million  aimutatad 
opa ration*  land  30  worn-out  fing-araf  !T)  and  tnli 
allow*  Sum  lock  Micro  war*  ih*  conf(d*nc*  to 
diah  out  a  two  yaar  raptacamarri  wnrrpnly  on  ih* 
Katick.  Th*  Pro  Ac*  can  he  u&*d  with  any 
'atandard'  Spactrum  joystick  inlorfnco;  word 
ha •  it  th*r*fcll  loon  he  one  coming  Along  from  SM 
rh*m **l w*»,  You'll  o*t  a  Pro  Ac*  ailhar  through 
mail  order  direct  from  th*  company  or  Irom 
selected  retail  outlet*.  Ring  Sumlock  on  061  - 
«M  4231 


Thompson.  Nureiftg, 
Eliex,  David  Saunders 

tingham;  Mike 
Often .,  F  ram  I  i  ngh  a  m+ 
Suffolk;  NickvRuiter. 
Whiilev  Bav; 'Philip 
Daniels.  Shanklm.  I0W; 
Paul  Mark,  Hull; 
N  Emery,  Liidi;  Mr 
I  ;imh.  Aylesbury-,  Mark 


Little,  Belfast;  Michael 
Wiecko,  Wrexham, 
Clwyd;  Vincent  Kelly, 
North  wood  Hill;  Chris 
iX-silva,  Bedford;  Colin 
Konpvrka.  Maidstone: 
Alan  Hrigman,  Brisi 
lit,  Goldthnrpe, 
S  York  shire;  Robert 
Hcckmih.  Northampton: 


VEGETABLES  FIGHT  BACK 


With  everybody  fed  up 
to  ihc  back  molars  with 
invading  alien*.  W I  now 
the  lurn  of  marauding 
vegetables.  Difficult  is  a 
may  be  to  believe,  after 
Revenge  c/the  Kilter 
T&m&t&ej*  comes 

'Viable  Crash  front 
Kiuw, 

It's  a  machine  code 
program  that  runs  M  the 
48 K  Spectrum  and  the 
scenario  goes  like  Ihfa 
you  are  being  attacked 


by  battling  vegetables 
and  under  Tire  from 
exploding  seeds.  You 
have  three  lives  and 
there"*  nowhere  to  hide 

so  watch  out  that 
l hose  crazy  carrot.*  don't 
break  ranks  and  try  to 
crash  into  you, 

At  £6,95  this  may 
sou  i  weedy' 

tyvckl  /-"c/j.  but  uyftjf, 
it  should  be  available 
from  all  welt- fertilised 
micro  stores* 


usmm 


UMM 


The  1  .ssc\  Inhibition 
Centre  is  planning  to 
hold  a  home  computer 
fair  at  the  Old  Si  John 
School,  Chelmsford,  in 
the  next  couple  of 
rmmih*  s;t\s  org^nistr 
Lance  Feller. 
"Eshibitor*  won't  have 
to  pay  to  attend,  but 
visitors  uill  pmhahly  be 
charged  £  I  per  heocT. 
Mr  Feller  was  also 
responsible  for 
Chelmsford"*  first 
business  computer  fair 
back  in  April,  when 


:ippro\iTTialcl)  .^iMi 
■i  iMti  irs  [it tended    I1  ii 

'Tbii  ihow  wasn't 
quite  as  success  I  ul  as 
we'd  hoped,  because  we 
had  one  problem  after 
another  On  the  previous 
night  a  hurst  pipe  caused 
a  major  Hood,  ami  I  was 

working  until  four  in  the 
ung  mopping;  up  the 
mess  " 

If  you  fancy  a  day  at 
the  fair,  you  can  catch 
Lance  on  0245  252900. 
But  don't  forge t  your 
Wellington  boots! 


Muhael  Church. 
Camden  Town.  I 
Andrew  Watt  Solihull; 
David  Salem.  Liverpool; 
and  could  Daniel 
(Something  or  another) 
from  Leathcrbcad  and 
Brian  { What  *  hi  sn  a  me) 
from  Orpington  contact 
us  as  soon  as  possible. 


A  SERIOUS 


VISION 


»ns,  of  London  W6, 
has  recently  launched  its 
first  business  package  for 
the  48 K  Spectrum. 

I kldly  named  Sci  Fite* 
the  package  constats  of  a 
Program  Generator  and 
a  Report  Program 

irraior\  The  former 
allow*  you,  without  any 
knowledge  of  Basic,  to 
ale  a  database  of  a 
structure  arid  design  ih;il 
you  can  i 

frrsoftal  requirements, 
he  second  program  in 
the  package,  the  Report 
Ptogmm  Genera  tor, 
allow*  youioaci 
your  database  and 
display  it  in  various 
formats. 

There**  two  ways  we 
can  look  at  this  either 
game*  software  hou* 
should  slick  lo  games 
M'ltwanr,  or  Visions  was 
offered  something  so 
gLKxl.  the  company 
couldn't  refuse  it. 
U  hichevcr,  Vision 
(Software  Factory  r  i* 
selling  Srt  Ufa  at 
Ct  9  55;  the  company** 
phone  number  k 
01  7487478 


RMTLWE 


c-  —*J 


THOSE  WISE  VIRGINS 


Regular  visitors  to  the 
West  End  of  London 
mil  probably  remember 
the  famous  "green* 
Games  C  ens  re  shops, 
These  stores  sold  all 
manner  of  toys  and 
games,  from  DAD  to 
Dominoes  .and 
Computer  Battleships  to 
Ruhic'i  Cube  —  until 
one  day,  an  acute 
cashflow  problem  caused 
the  closure  of  all 

Bue  here's  the  good 
news,  for  store  numem 
una  in  Oxford  Street  has 
recently  been  taken  over 
In  the  virgin  Empire 
Ycs+  in  the  turbulent 
wake  of  the  Virgin 
"  am  s-  the-  At  la  nt  ie-  for- 
under  a -ton*  scheme, 
multi-millionaire  tycoon 
Richard  Branson  has 
decided  to  launch  his 
own  Virgin  Games 
Centre 

The  store  looks 
surprisingly  similar  to 
ihe  way  ii  did  before. 
The  bottom,  or  ground, 
floor  is  stacked  with  the 
usual  toys  and  games, 
but  the  loph. 


taken  over  by  the  home 
computer  department  — 
ob>  icmsly  became  Virgin 

a!rcad>  ha*  interests  in 
that  direction. 

Checking  out  the 
shelves  ofrhe  upstairs 
dept.  one  can  i  help 
noticing  an  obvious  lack 
of  plugging  I 
own  brano  software. 
Apart  from  a  few  copies 
scattered  amonpi  the 
racks  full  of  rival 
product,  the  only  push 
for  Virgin  Games  is  | 
small  poster  pinned  to  a 
pillar.  The  computer 
department's  Lcs  Baker 
said  this  w as  because, 
"we're  going  for  new 
releases  rather  than  just 
our  own  games"  —  a 
refreshing  lack  of  bias 
indeed,  and  probably 
good  commercial  sense 
to  boot. 

<  Irn  c  the  centre  m.l1- 

become  more 
published,  thf  phin  1*  io 
move  away  from  the 
VCS-type  machines  and 
concentrate  on  ihe  home 
market.  Wise  people. 
There  are  also  going  to 
be  special  offers  where 


YOU  DIRTY  RAT 


Now  get  dis.  Da  latest 

tHHC  rn'im  d.i 
Met  bourne  House  mob 
is  called  Sfuesy  and  it's 
da  first  gangster  game 
w  id  comic-  strip  speech 
in  da  language  of  da 
great  days  of  Chicago  in 
da  1920s  Just  ta  give  us 
bored  olk  journalists  a  bit 

■urprise  like. 
Melbourne  House  sent 
da  boys  around  wjd  da 
resiew  copies,  Jet/ 
when  da  two  lads  w  id  da 
vioiin  cases  walked  m, 
our  receptionist  just  hit 
da  ground,  Ah  mean, 
dese  tings  just  don' 


happen  m  Rathbone 
Place. 

Dji  game  h,^  hm 
designed  using  da 
Melbourne  Dmw  utility 
program  and  de  aim  is  ta 

ighesl  an'  most 
powerful  mobster  in 
town   Vd  buy  da  mob's 
:irh11ery  and  ammo, 
bribe  da  cops,  organise 
di\  protection  rackets  and 
most  important,  makka 
lotta  dough.  Mugsy  costs 
£h.l*5  And  works  on  da 
48K  Spectrum.  Don"  a 
miss  Jzt  renew  soon  inna 
da  mag   -  or  dere'll  be 
trouble' OK" 


you  gel  'nine  for  the 
price  of  five  \  or 
whatever  If  this  pilot 
store  is  a  success,  then 
Virgin  hopes  to  open 
similar  centres  in  other 
area*  of  the  codify. 

The  V  if  gin  Games 
Centra  is  only  a  couple 
of  door*  aw a>  from  the 
Virgin  Megasturc  ai  the 
Tottenham  (nun  Ro:id 
endofO*r  rJ  Street 

d  0*11  more  by  going 
there  —or  'phoning  0  J  - 
637  791  I, 

Still  on  Virgin  ground, 
the  games  company  has 
recently  been  expanding 
its  operations  In  a  major 
change  of  strategy; 
Virgin  has  decided  to 
become  more  than  a 
mere  publishing  house. 
Wc  have  decided  to 
create  a  small  team  of  in 
house  pro  ^ramming 
talent  to  develop  unique 
creative  software/1  said 
a  spokesman.  If  yon 
think  you've  got  it  —  and 
Virgin  want  it  —  pop 
round  to  6 1  /63 
Portobello  Road, 
London  Wl  I  and  che^k 

IE  i  i LJ 1 


PEEK  WHEN  YOUR 


SPOKEN  TO 


Micro  Command  ■»  a  n*w  ip*«ch  rtcoqmiian 
ayalam  that  can  b«  u*«d  irJl i*\\y  with  girnti*  but 
■  rt»r  a  bil  of  practic*  you  can  u*«  th*  routine* 

rtrovid«d  for  #y*t*mt  of  your  own  doaign. 
ncludad  in  fh»  pactaaga-  la  an  intarfac*,  a 
mmruphoni  and  a  CHB*tt«  cent  ft  I  map  vAnOut 
program*  nnprng  f  rqm  mn  introduction  to 
*p**th  recognition  through  to  a  gimt  callod 
Sheeplnlk  which  h*»  you  rounding  up  aheap  by 
giving  verbal  command*  lo  m  fth+epdog!  Micro 
Command  ham  ■  ncommindtd  retail  price  of 
C  40*VB  and  i»  ft  vail  utile  from  high  a  I  re  of  thopt 
In  cat*  of  difficulty  coll  Orion  Data  Ltd  on  0273 
07 2904 r 


EXPANDING  BOUNDARIES    I  TO  HELL 


WH  Smith  h  planning  to 
extend  its  rimgcof 
Computer  Shops  by  the 
beginning  of  September 
this  yc:ir   The  com  pun  \ 
describe*  these  shops 
wiihin-shops  as  having  a 
" relaxed'  atmosphere 
where  you  can  si!  in 
comfort  at  console  units 
and  use  complete 
systems  —  as  well  as 
being  able  to  make  full 

if  the  computer 
staff's  expertise  John 
Rowland,  ihe 
Merchandise  Controller 
far  Smiibv  sens   'We 
want  people  to  be  able  to 
try  out  the  hardware  for 
themselves  and  have  the 
opportunity  to  discuss 
and  compare  the  various 
computer  specifications 
and  software  packages 
with  our  specially 
i  mined  staff. "  Another 
idea  h  computer 
exhibition  evenings  to 
demonstrate  the  specific 
linlj  i>f  computers  and 
peripherals 

Of  the  company's  J55 
retail  shop*.  50  will 
contain  Computer  Shops 
and  220  will  have  know- 


how"  departments  by 
September  this  year, 
Ncu  Computer  Shops 
are  hemg  opened  JU 
Hi -!ii  in.  Chester. 
Coventry,  Derby. 
Lewi  sham,  Oxford, 
Preston,  Southend, 
Sunderland,  Watford 
and  York;  and  ' know 
how1  departments  will 
appear  at  (take  a  deep 
breath)  Basildon, 
Bedford,  Blackpool. 
Bournemouth,  Bradford, 
ChclfD-ffoftft 

Cheltenham,  Colchester. 
Crawley.  Ouildfordi 
Han  ley.  Harlow,  High 
Wycombe,  Ilford,  Luton, 
Peterborough,  Putney, 
Nottingham,  Richmond. 
Slough,  SolihuU, 
Stockport.  Sutton, 
Swindon,  Wood  (eh  and 
Worthing.  Computer 
evenings  are  planned  for 
Birmingham,  Cardiff. 
Glasgow,  Kingston. 
Leeds,  Leicester, 
Liverpool,  London 
!  Ho] born  Circus  and 
Hrent  Cross), 
Nottingham,  Reading, 
Southampton  and 
Swansea.  (Wheu/i 


SOFTWARE 


Richard  Shepherd 
Software,  revealed 
recently  in  KSasihe 
recipient  of  one  of  our 
coveted  Strangled 
Turkey  awards 
has  launched  another 

Kme  in  its  Adventures 
to  Imagination   series 
The  offering,  entitled 
The  Ittfertw  is  based 
around  Dante's  concept 
of  Hell  —ai  Laid  out  tn 
his  book,  lr\fitrno. 

Hobbit  fans  ml] 
probably  feel  at  home 
with  the  interactive 
characters   Here, 
however,  the  idea  is 
taken  one  step  further  in 
that  any  character  may 
befriend  y~r\  n*  become 
your  enemy, 

Th*  Iryfww  *  as 
released  on  June  lst4  and 
retails  at  £6.50  for  the 
4KK  Spcccy.  More 
tk tails  from  Richard 
Shepherd  Software,  21- 
25  Elms  holt  Lane, 
Oppcnham,  Bti> 


UNIVERSITIES 

Dnitf  or  tit  j  Of  Le*C*ete*  Department 

V  Faycnotogy 

Tr»  Finance  1  EalatOf  Qfhcor 

Urtfvaratty  College  of  Sw  anaa* 

Umvtriity  of  Eaal  AngUe  School  of 


» 


• 


Weamekt  College,  Oepartmen!  of 
Zootegr  u^varally  of  London 
School  01  Phyalce;  University  O* 
Mewcaalle  upon  Tyne 

D  rtoro  Un  1  wrarty  Compunng 

The  Urtl  verity  of  W Arwicti 

Uniwetty  of  Aberdeen .  Oepe^tmortt 

of  Googyepny 

Trap  Unrwrwlf  tit  SuiHX 

Unrvantly  of  BrtaAof 

HerW-Watt  Umwotty  E*f*  of  Civil 

Engineering 

T  he  Nn  Unrvortit >  of  Ulster 

The  Uni  tor  efty  of  Sir  athcryde 

T  he  Urtveratty  of  Southampton 

Uniwotty  of  Lhwrppol 

The  Unhwofty  ol  Aefcffl  In 


J 


• 

; 

• 
* 


ynrvereity  of  Keek 

Uftttfottit,  Of  Surrey 
uYirveraJty  CqXo*  of  Undo" 
Tho  urihrfftity  of  Oundow. 
Microcomputer  Centre 

POLrTCCHNfcs 

Thame*  Polytechnic 

Foiytec hnic  of  the  South  Sank 

Co  vantry  fLancheater  J  Poly 

Oept  Of  Applied  Chemittry  Co vo  ntry 

(UnchcpforJ  F0Jy 

Nowcoalai  upon  Tyna  Poly 

MncfMiwr  1  uiy  bpujohl 

Homeld  Palmist h'ne.  Oopl.  of 


Th* 
Lee- 

Kir 

K 

■4 


"lie 

■fr!  Pi 
M||  PoffBc  fin  ic 


lyrrrtipoVsiyTfchnio, 
umoutn  Pofyi»c 


COLLEGES 

»C4»ege  Uftiveruttfof 


iraiegy 


iCCofTtei 

llnlver*  '?  College  61  5waraj*oi 

BMfcn  ■  ^  Lvpewwyg  Co-mpuin-  • 

Contrr  HmkMng.  Uriahs  ityttfeg* 

of  S»*flwfl 

wen*        ■  'j*.  worn 

Comb-  ^Ktiht  Cokog*  of  fHand 

Tectir*    ,-T  ^P 

Lond4nBprtiugh  of  Havot  irae*  The 

Prmc«p*r  Hc.*.-.ng  T< 


Blackpool  *fk!  Fykfci  College 

1  of  Education 
hOf  Technology 
I  Count  y  College  Of 


Kilmarnock  College 

Woerotdt  College  of  F  Education 

WHriid*  Coii&§  of  P  Education. 

Depl  Of  Eloc  lric*l  4  Muni  ng 

Newom  TC  School  Co4»ego 

N*t-en#J  CoCiego  of  AgrtcuHurwl 

Engineering 

Bradford  4  iihiey  Community 

Soom*mtCo.l*go 
Coa*go  of  Arts  *  Technology 
Hud  Craft  Deiiftfi  ft  TeCA 


St  CcJurnbu*  Co  Be  go 

Ftooen  Gordon  ■  inetrtute  of 


Of  Higher 


•  South***  Cottage.  Math*. Phyale* 


Mehock  College  of  Higher  E  ducel  urn 


Wakefield  Oiatrict  Cottage 
flof  Hikry  CaWege  of  Technology 
Tfw  Coltoge  01  S1   Poul  *  St  Mvry 
Therwt  Techmcol  College 

WeJfvi'ifCtiiTr^^ntco^  i*flnogt 
Cinnocfthju  TVchnkel  College 

i^lor^  Mortupbe  > 
f^  urtrwr  <H  uc  o!  i-d  r| 

. 
New  College  DurBprn 
Bath  CooVg*  of  Hejhor  Lduitlhori^^^ 
Norfn  TrMnjco  College 
Pepl  of  Ed«c*t*onoJ  Ageoiiroee 
fhwifhonei^in  rnWof  nf  loVoief 


TKhnkral  CvMlVt 


fta. 


Bourrwnouih  ood  Poole 

Khar  EducefJon 
Merrow  College  of  Mlqrne 
SoutMM  Co^ege  r  r  TKn 
SMwriiffe  College 
Southern*  Cooege 
Dwo/eoory  *  Betloy  Toe  holul*  An 
College 

Trvehem  Cottoge 
were  Coitege       m^ 
f  nurrocfa  TecbnlcoJ  College 
CMcueoe  Co  oege ,  Pep  1 .  Sctemc*  & 
Techoology 


•  Hitrllnglori  Uppef  Scfiool 

•  Heoth  Co^protwiioivo  School 

•  The  High  School  Berlyrtamnch 

•  nAp-fiiiSehftfti 

•  Monhi  OylUe  MigJi  Sctiooi 
m    rONgEOwat^'oichaK^Bolri 

•  -he  God&tpMn  ^  j  ivUf  £c 

•  Winces  BtfCl^y  Sflfe>n' 
m  3onw  Noun  f.'a^ipreoi 

e  SLPeui»wny  School 

•  Lefts  men  Middle  School 

•  ftufthcFofr  Hign  School 
e>  Tri<nimg  end  Edtit  Itomigemenl 

•  High  Orven  School 

•  (^rrwroCorriprehertoJvoScrwol 

•  Brvtoofiele  S*-h  r>' 

•  OifgrdlnfcfnoMonoi  iXneneti 
School  § 
Nompstood  School  v 


COMPANIES 
Cernoddge  Appited  Micro* 
Sirtoo  Comouter  Sytlomo 
A   ^Mrence  Su>n  LUe  Court 
'-■  1  Jio  A  Aeeocie«e« 
»tet  Servicoe 

■■*■  ■  'lOfial  Phyelcol  iMhoreeery 
c-eotfol  Trade  Eichenge  Ltd 


1 


Soutfi  Thame*  I 

fort  caiieqe  op  Arte  A  fe 

Softie  s^k     allege    f  Ml 

Tedtnology 

Bonwgiri  of  "  f .;■  If nrrt 

Qoiiege 

PkiO*L!-  "nMQfd< 
fhurroch  f  echniceJ  1 
Thurrock  Teehnkal  < 
Convpute*  OefMftmerii 
Febrhem  Commiifilty  CoHege 
Mid  Cofktge  ol  Higher  A  Ftrrffw 
Edycetioo 

Eoet  Hmm  CoOege  of  Technology 
Seoie-Meyne  College 


y  L 


•■mv 

■chn^cei 


UithTKlge  Te^hr-,.e#t  -"rjllege 
J4ortf*  Oaid'cJ  ahiff  t< 
^lOldl  Art 

t -jrtmgGOftege  OTtlgtvflr  Ed^ 
WoJeti  Neii  noil Schodl ol  Morik  ,ne 

Lordlleyoi   rrgfoiv  Coiieoo 
auuth  Eoii  t,  urtdon  C^Hiige 
Femborough  (Si  xtn  Form  J  College 
Wlgetotr  College  of  further 
Education  Annoi 
Strode  *  College 
Dundee  College  of  Education 
leie  of  Wight  Coiioge  of  Arte  and 

KeodAl  COlleg*  r>r  Fufihof  Educate ; " 
Wroon  College  c^t  Techooi^jgy 
wiham  Tec  hne5»i  Colli  ' 
Souik  Oawn  GoEfefS^i  An«  \ 
lwhmiogy 
^EirHSMefdi  Monr 
Conega 

SCHOOLS 
Camborne  School  of  1 
LongtOfi  Higfi  School 
Berry  Mill  High  School 
Camborne  School  of  Aftne* 
Honogerneni  Depart roenl 
Sc  hoc  l  of  Phytic  a 
Ouoen  Pfiirkppa>  School 
Carter  lodge  School 
Ainfteid  School 
All  Milkrwi  School 
Mood  Vale  Primary  Sch  • 
Vkncenl  ThOrnpeon  High  1 
Si  Aubym  Schor- 
imbefftormr  Sen*- 
Newhefn  School '      '      l 
Dorcan  School 
Beaumont  Scfi 
Bilfencay  School 
Eaeief  Schoof  Computef 
De  pert  mem 
CUrendon  School 
The  uv  1  n  u  Norf one  \M\ 

.rm'eCofE  Priciwy  School 
Si  Peter  *  High  School 
Roch  Ferry  High  Schoof 
Moev  on  Treni  Language  Centre 
Connih  1  Quay  High  School 
Gucfchurei  Hill  County  High  School 


GQVFRNMEHTCrf^ARTMENTS 

m    -,-i!forrt*mrr-  County  Council 

Adeiawy  linn  P01  Compuiefa 

•  lalcealerihlreCounlyCoimcM 

•  The  Dtroctor  of  Fknance  A 
Adminkitraoon,  Carnbridgeefure 
County  Coiincil 

•  Tho  Netionei  i^eihute  lot 

Mr  *.'^mr^  h 

Department  of  thv  Environ 
UujJdlnq  m>    <  .^chE*labUih 

igjert  Coun-Y  CoungM6«k#cation 
rtaairii 


iryof  Defeibce 

council  Accounta 


wni 

tion    j 


Deport nwnl  Of  Tr  Ode 

Devon  County  Council  Comminee 
Oepertmont  of  Elechicei  Eng, 
Coeegi  ol  Further  Educotiori 
Slrathclyde  Regional  Council 
County  Borough  of  Sundertand 
Moftr  CotiiHty  CoufieP 
^nrtflogharn^^rr  Qearntv  foirrr 
itlidon  r>  vn    -  Council 
rfy  of  Newcaaf laSpon  T  yraj 
-duconen  Comn#le« 
rtampirie  c#unty  CDurvei 
Bucking  M^"V,*MF*  0#unly  fcou 

education 


a -;on«xrt  Syvleme 

^rexUM 
uYltlah  Tetocommurocadofta 
B  T  Reooerch  Lab*  AcoourUe 
Wlndaor  Wine  Suppllae 
Jonnoriow  Ltd 
Ibootaoni  Deaign  Software 

:i   Aiwk, lolion  Ltd 
MoltptnLld 


Dlvlelort 

iregenHOon  Tec Hnology  Marketing 
Steel*  Macrqeyotomo  Ltd 
Tho  Tolovision  Centre 
Educatiion  A  l«cfOlech  Jnll 
Bnneh  Telecom  Eneerprlaee 
Otaaeay  DMrteulton  Lid 
■Kttwn^.it 
opttfic*"      urce  Tracing 
BBC  p  thi»cauon« 
■*  rti  Computer  a  lid 

Itaivitk  T    iwihy  Ud 
H.i    -       eronefa 
Mi   •    -■•    ^e 

fteglorilnfo  Cenlre 
Palace 
l  oetlone  Lid 

LM^errnatlon 

uuobom  Video  ProdueflofiB 

BBC  TV  South 

K ii pag  Company  Of  u>e n  Dmim 


Metropoiftan  Borough  of  Geieeheed 
Cleveland  Education  Comrnrttee 
Guleoor ough  TiacfHi  l  Centre 
Metropolitan  Borough  of  ftoc  hdale, 
Fdiic otlon  end  Trolnlnq  Centre 
Lekeaferf  hirf  £ducdtion  C 
De*i4M mentor  indueery  a  Trac^ 
leKo-.-of  hifc;    f^cll  Centre 

Saejlll  fidUr,  .illnn  Deyoftmefi 

w  inpcwar  l^ovicet  Coi 

TrAlnkigBarviceo 

Sejn  Cenir*  Ti  .nn.ng  Agency 

Co  ;'B 

II  TBCh^- :  -•gr  Canlf  q 
r4eafth  Authority 
Devon  County  Council  Ed  Cornm 
Mid  Surrey  Heaoth  Atrthoftty 
Epaorn  Dielnct  Hoepftal 

Sconioh  Council  lor  Educattokmai 

Technology 

Cfrryd  County  Councrl 

Norfolk  Education  Committee 

Agricultural  A  Food  Heeoarch 

Council 

Mid  Qaanttrqnn  Coon*|  Council 

Ldura|*r,ii  L^partmedl 

Kenr  rrmnty  f^pphi&i  Centre 

iond>^'''  ek>rough  ol  Barnei 

•  Weet  Midiornu  HeQKinoi  HeeMi 
Authority 

Scotht^  C pm merely  Education 
Council 

Toe  Scortnh  Adull  Baelc  Education 
UrtM 

BirrranghAfii  Social  Service* 
Mi(  roe+ectronic*  Education 
Ptogfem* 

Orealer  London  Council 
Ooncaeter  Mofropofilon  Borougrv 
Covnctt 

•  umied  Hmgoom  Atomic  Energy 
AuthoHfy 


ISy 

#  Cipher  Sy«lemB  , 
CumfTiunK-.aBw^  l  id 

■       >g»-     ■  jfflfeh  AJ 
Aord>*M  Protect  Ufrtn 
Andrew  Shyf  0  A  Son  I 

#  Acomeo#l 

Hvcm  ^ecnriDKigf  ncf 

*  Britlah  Shloouildere  graining,  Ed  A 
Safety)  Ltd 

o>  Botion  Cornpuieri  Handeiegee 

*  ^gherCoi- 

B   T  tam  Corporation 

•  Robot  Tacrtf       ...,  Ltd 


•   umaadltlngc: 
jB     Aythgrlff 
«  BfiiifthAavoj. 


Aerr 

Solom 

eee/ 
El  tie  So  me  or  o  Co  Lid 


Qro^i 

•  v  Av- 


ar tnaac  (In verctydel  Lid 

•  Uriiveraal  Sonar  Ltd 
e>  Dignar€<ruipmontScoiiaAdttd 
&  Edword  Dovw*  Chemtoei 

*  Pyramid  Servicee  Ud 


•  mnflaeroy  Pnncetort 

•  MtoofrdttE  UUU 

•  thomaa  Law  Ai 

m   TrmmTrklop  Productions  Ltd 
«  De*h  EiectiKat  A  Eleeti onlc 

Sarvicea 
m  Aeken  Engineering 

Ttej  Eatcrrfcity  Council 

T  -  ipiych  PuoHahlng  Lid 

IX  Data 

DctoconDali 

MortnWeleaN. 

Janaeen  Ptw  ■  ■  ncmvfow  Md 

H*»of*e4  Coal  Boav^i 

FT^e  Waya  Soft* 

Eoet  olio 


# 
m 
# 


^a< 


Jonn  fLImar  p-     o  t 

Miconei  ^.^aaL 

Control  Electric  fly  Geji*"*** 
Querrtaey  Computere  I"  ■ 
Curhari  Computer  Corftponenta 


BRITISH  MICRO 


r 


for  Sinclair  Spectrum  ..  .drawing  into  the  future! 


How  you  loo  can  have  {he  benelii  ol  drawing  your  own  applications  by  the  simple  uftft 

ol  our  NEW  ZX  Spectrum  version  o*  Gratpadl 

THE  GRAPPA D  comes  rampteie  *i|h  Cassette 

Programme  SpecUKejjtxpql  Overlay,  Rug  Light  Ran 

and.  of  course, *  w^^fcnlNimanuai  fuM  of  tips  and 

instructions       ^JlP^lP^SHN^ty  e*P«ied  irom 

STARTING  UP  « 

Connect  the 

p    twilcfi  on  you* 

■  mind  conned 

the  cassette  player,  type 

LOAD*  end  piwe 

ENTER,  ihen  surf  ihe 

mwMi  pttyfci  pitci 

the  keytowtl  owtey, 

Iry  the  time  you  are 

_i  the  "MENU 
on  to  youf  tcreenf 

Usage?  Wsf  there  fe 

AS  MANY  USES  AS  YOU  CAM  1W 
fry  lust  following  our  easy  manua 

.  ycHJ  wii  be  atie  to  utlliee  fs  you 

A  UNIQUE  PRODUCT  tfi* 
™mmm  ymu  ftiuirs  and  gme 
jendtoathounol 
a       oMcJiefww 


*  Dealer  inquiries  welcomed 

*  Special  discounts  to  educational 
authorities  &  government 

departments 

*  Export  inquiries  invited 


r  TO  ORDER 
BY  Tf  LEPTOW*   (9*33)  ±6222 

ttgftfer  i»np*r  *******  u*  pnrq  *Our 
Carfl  to  .  Mm.  Aa*»  IPO  nemi  si 


BY  POST 

*  Mm  pi«  tpte*  HCAon  lot* 
C***  ( :jni  Hottm  md  port  tote 


p  *ta  t  iq  p»f  m*i  mmmd 


ftjs*  lo  BRITISH  MICRO.  UNIT  02,  PENFGLD  WORKS 
WAY,  WATFORD.  HERTS  WD24YY 

DSBC  MODEL  0  O  COWMQDQ*lE  ft* 

M  tfCHJ  ran  uirp  Mltfli  (if  Ihf  «DO>4 


IMPERIAL 


BRITISH  MICRO 


Qfe 


Jl*m 


GraipAd  C*"ip4tf» 


In  VAT 


£125  00 


irxi  VAT 


EMITS 


fcltf 


A  HEGOTRON  GROUP  COMPANY 

Unit  02  PfenkjWW. 

tmpentf  W&y.  WHtofil  HERTS  W02  4  YY 

TEL  fG923) 48222  TELEX  946024 


•ii.: 


csco 


<m 


*  im^iiiqf  mm  it  nnr  wp-omohi 


I  enclose  my  cftaq ue  lor/PO  C  totai 

Ip  to  pay  with  my  American  Expmfi.  Barctaycara,  ONneni  Club. 

Access  Card 

*se  delete  whichever  is  noi  apphtiifile) 

Card  No 
Signature 


YS 


« 

r< 

w 


Outperforms  any  Spectrum  interface 


The  unique  Turbo  interface  from  Ram  gves  you  al  these 
features  -and  more-  n  one  umt 

*  A  vanety  of  interfaces  mcludng  Rom  cartridges,  two  *  way  Dplu^ 
for  standard  joystick*  PLUS  ful  expansion  bus  at  rear. 

*  CompattfcwrrJnKempstc^afxJProtekprotocote, 

*  Wbrte  with  latest  Quctehot  Mk  I  auto  rapd-frejoysbds! 

*  Choce  of  Rom  cartridge  or  tape  cassette  software. 

*  Instant  program  toadng  with  cartridge  software. 

*  Burt-»i  power  safety  device  -unique  to  Ram  Turbo 

*  Ful  one  year  giarantee. 

*  Immedtite  avadabtty-  24  Hr  despatch  on  recefrt  of 
PO  J  credit  card  details  (cheques  -  seven  days), 

*  tared**?  va/ue- only  122  95 

So  don't  waft  around  -  smply  complete 
the  coupon  and  send  it  to  us  today 


Or  caiouT credit  card  hot  kne  on  02514  25252.  (Access  and 
Veawefcome) 

Ram  Electronics  (Fteet)  Ltd,  B6  Fleet  Road.  Fleet  Hampshire 
GU138PA 


Please  send  me; 
Spedruri 


I 


24  H, 

****chfer 

Cn**  car*  and 


+  £1  p+p  [querteas  order*  £3p+p) 

_  Quckshot  I  Joyste^s|at£9.95 
(Qrtywhenpi*chas^witoTi^  p+tf 

I  enctee  cheque,  posta*  order  or  charge  my  Access/Vsa  fat  £_ . 

rui  i  i  i  i  i  i  i  i  i  i  i  iT-m 

Name 

Address . 


'^\ 


Tel 


TV 


lade  and  export  enquiries  welcome. 


■ 


iMmM 


WHT    Iff 


ffii 


hinkyoufcnowft 
4bout  pop  music  — 
hub!  Wen,  bore's  ■ 

package  from  Bell  flower 
Software  that  could 
stretch  (he  cdbjuft  a 
little  \\\  rutted  Stuart 
Henry 't  Pop  Quiz  and  is 
available  for  the  4SK 
Spectrum. 

Radio  Luxembourg 
di&c  joci  rt  Henry 

has  sifted  through  rrv 
than  750  questions  on 

Epmus^      from  [he 
atles  through  to  Boy 
George  —and  the  game 
can  be  played  by  either 
one  or  two  players,  with 
questions  selected  at 
random  over  each  of  six 
friuocb. 
Bui  this  wn'tjust  a 

^traJ^htton^irJ  check  HI 

your  know  ledge  oTthe 
music  scene,  A  l  the  si  art 
of  each  round  the 
computer  plays  a  sh 
nine*  then  prints  a  blank 


musical  stave  on  the 

u  board  with  a  space 
for  esc  r\  note  of  the 
tunc  When  you've 
correctly  answered  a 
question,  you  gel  the 
chance  to  guess  one  of 
the  notes  in  that  tunc;  a 
correct  answer  will  gain 
some  extra  points,  but 
guess  it  wrong  and  ten 
points  are  knocked  off" 
your  bonus  icon 


LEVELLING  UP 


!'     an  irritating  I  net  of 
adventures  that  you 
often  encounter  a  puzzle 
that  sou  jun  can*)  totw, 
Level  lj  ftfrmturea  have 
alw;ts>  included  fom 
that  can  be  returned  for 
beEp  when  players  get 
k  and  »ow  L9  may 
indeed  be  the  first  UK 
firm  to  Mart  an 
adventure  help  ion  ice, 

Origin  ally  every 
enquiry  needed  a 

separate  written  replj 
and  40  last  year  the 
company  decided  in 
experiment  by  producing 
a  comprehensive  clue 


sheet  for  Cofto 
Aihtwuft*  The  sheet 
was  sent  out  in  reply  to 
all  enquiries  aboui  the 
lame.  So  successful  was 
it  that  many  people 
wrote  requesting  similar 
help  for  tithe r  |ftmei 

So  now 
comprehensive  clue 
sheets  are  available  for 
all  the  1  *J  adventure 
products  and  tbeyVv 
to  anyone  who  sends  the 
company  an  SAt:  The 
sheets  provide 
alphabetical  lists  of  the 
objects,  creatures  and 
trickiesi  locations  in 


PHONE  FOR  PETE 


since  we  an  noun 
the  start  of  the  \ 
Helpline  for  stranded 
readers,  Trouble- 
shooting  Ptie  has  been 
deluged  with  phone-in 
problem**  We  asked  him 
to  report  on  some  t>f  the 
more  interesting  ones. 
Tin  not  sure  I  knew  what 
to  expect  on  the  first 
Wednesday  after  issue 
three  hi  i  the  streets  — 
would  I  have  a  flood  of 
calls,  or  would  the 
'phone  be  dead '  In  the 
event  the  first  day  was 
pretty  quiet,  but  the 
Activity  since  then  has 
certainly  made  up  for  n! 
The  problems  them- 
selves  have  ranged  from 


difficulties  with  pro 
grants  listed  in  the  mag, 
to  agonies  over  broken 
Spectrums. 

Mr  Blackhcath  from 
1.1. union  hod  trouble 
with  hi v  key board.  The 
from  Caps  Shift  to 
Space  had  died  on  him 
—  in  other  words  he"d 
lost  the  whole  of  the 
bottom  row   It  sa  fault 
thai'*  caused  by  a  cut  or 
break  in  the  keyboard 
membrane,  usually 
where  it  enlcrs  the  PCB 
connectors.  You  can 
either  fin  this  problem 
yourself,  by  cutting  back 

nnectors  behind 
the  break,  or  you  can 
I  buy  new  membranes  tor 


With  a  new  my 
tunc  at  the  start  of  e- 
round  of  every  game  nnd 
questions  selected  at 
random.  Pop  Quiz  can 
be  played  over  and  over 
MMO    f  he  game  co 

s  and  a  donation  is 
being  made  to  the 
Multiple  Sclerosis 
Society-  for  every  copy 
sold.  The  game  is 
available  From  WH  Smith 


Some  of  the  sheets  have 
up  to  580  entries  in 

typed  prim  but  it's 
still  relamely  cu 
look  up  where  something 
is  hidden  or  to  discover 
bou  bo  wtve  some 
puzzle  concerning  it. 
Certainly  h"s  a  much 
clearer  system  than  the 
straightforward  question 
and  answer  approach, 
ur  SAHs  to 
I  evd  9  Computing,  229 
Hughe  nden  Road,  High 
Wvcombe.BucksHPI? 
5P(i 


tl  20  *  VAT  from 
CM   m  IV 4-200  North 
Road,  Preston,  l.cm 

ire.  PRI   IYP  And 
oi  you  out 
there  who  have  blown  up 
umf  I   LAs.CPC  sells 
those  as  well       for 

:5  4  VAT.  Unfor- 
tunately, CPC  imposes  a 
minimuffl  order  charge  of 
£5  +  VA1  jniheUfcfo 
in  some  cases  you  origin 
have  to  buy  a  few  other 
bits  and  pieces  to  make 
up  the  order 

John  Hansen- Pry ce,  a 
Speccy  owner  from 
Woking  in  Surrey,  asked 
about  keyboards  for  his 
machine       a  query  that 
was  echoed  bs  mnnv  of 


THE  DAY  ZIP 


ehesiji 


tip  i 
died  the  death  of  a 
thousand  cuts  when 
some  demon  scape  I 
v* alder  decided  lo  chop 
it  up  and  slick  the  bits 
down  ba  the  wrong  order. 

If  you  find  the  article 
more  confusing  than 
usual  l  he  folio  wing 
program  i  don't  RUN  it 

Ssi  read  it!]  will 
e  the  bits  info  the 
order  I  intended 

Alternatively,  ace 
ediioi  IXHil  K 
RUNFOHM  wilt  spend 


hts  weekend  making 
amends  by  slaving  over  a 
hot  photocopier.  Write 
in  with  stamped 
addressed  envelope,  if 
soud  like  a  free 
photocopy  of  the  •rticle, 
hi  correct  order 
This  month's  article 
has  been  split  into  two 
sections,  m  ihi  (he  last 
parioi  the  series  will 
nppea r  m  mi  mon  i  h  Thai 

to*  |). 
Simon  (liaiin  croisid) 
Goodwin 


IQO    tF    f»*$*~i*t    WH>   cotuMW>*3   AMD   p*r*9r# 

AND    Laat     1  inf**nrt    my    b*    tf*t«cl« 

d       Qrue-    again    tha    THEN       LET    ne*r|      h"**ll 

t\m   ntAmtomr    *«d    a    * u  1  I    trror    me*** aq* *    OO    f 

0    p*Q*   48   column    2   pa#  *&r  aph    4 

<g*-49i     LET    calu«n>h     LET    pir* 
UraftiOl    LET    taut    h np-gwwr  #t  i nq    If 
r.  tioAf   to  put    #*eh   fi»»t     ltn»    l«    nuatiar    u 
r    variable    v«tu«   ON   A   Si^cH     DO    TO  p«Q* 
49   GOlufin    I    P«r#Qf  Aph    ? 

IF    p*gv-4ti    AMD    COluw*?    AHEt    p*f*xjr* 
pl>-4    AND    l*»t     1  i  rw<ftK*ui«    thv    «t»pn 
olv»fl   am  rpet    ftpcw-   N*  n^^  |]y   p» 

rfar-Md    in   ttw   wd«r    tn«y   ar«   them     m   t 

D    p*<*»     47     LOlu«n     T     p*rtgr4| 

13ft  LET    p-g*    ***:     LET    coluim-h     if  I    p*r  a 

grapli«2f    LET    Uit    I  |n»-tr*F  u^gh   *   t*bl#  e 

imp'.       1ht«    W«n*    yOMl    LET    n»?rt     1  |  nif-c 

an   riot    tty  SO    TO  v*ri*Ol*   in    #   cmi    OO   T 

0   fi*gir   4S   Cdluiin     I    p«f«qr#pri    1 

p*9««50  AND  pr&Qff-a*   lin»*380Q    TH 
EN       LET    thv    Miudqad    la  fc  t     ?A#B 

190    IF    pag»-V>    AND   program    hnt^ 
FN      L£T   thi   *™j    ci4     thp    1if,«-TQ   «9ffOi     lit 

llw  pro^|r«a>  b«  r»jfrmg«d  to  lit  th«  qa 
p  and  a»v*  tfw  bloc  I  -#ro*  ^V^  to  4579  * 
ov»    d  umi    4    i  I  n** 

160  REH    tl    you  alftprftnt    thta    I    I]    nw«r 

forgtv*  fa**. 


Br  for «  ycrn  mtari  typing,  Ihi*  program  wpn'l  RUN 
—  juM  rend  it  through  with  niue4S  'Adding  Zip" 
artier  and  all  wilt  ba  revealed. 


nuratllers  Of  the  key- 
bemrds  t  have  used,  the 
Fuller  FDS  is  one  or  my 
favourites;  unfortunately 
though,  the  companj 
vuMomer  service  leaves 
a  Llii  to  be  desired.  An 
alter  o  the  Fuller 

keyboard  li  I  0  Profile*  a 
very1  nice  device  from  a 
very  nice  comparv 
AMS.  This  imifit  has 
obviously  spent  u  lot  of 
time  studying  the  market 
and  has  come  up  with  a 
very  good  design. 

Back  to  the  more 
mundane  problems,  in 
issue  two  the  programs 
Kstad  m  Play  Po*tr  hut 
a  small  problem.  All  the 
pound  aymbols  t  ti  had 


been  printed  aa  backward 
separators!  |,  and  all  the 
hush  symbols  I  *  i  had 
been  printed  as  pound 
signs  (if  Apologies  lo 
time  reader  ed 

for  hours  lo  type  in 
PRINT  K  Land  who 
also  tried  to  find  the 
backward  separator 
character  on  the  Speccy 
The  lines  are  still  open, 
on  Wednesday*  and 
Fridays  From  10am  till 
Ipmand  2  5  pm  You 
can  ask  about  anything 
lo  do  with  the  Speccy  or 

Jon" I  expect  mc 
know  everything  I /i '% 
ntm&urtd  A^'i  Awm#n/ 
but  in  hctp  it  I 


t  .hi. 


11 


9MHfl^d3^r 


is 


■ 


* 


-1  Jl^^^^ 

Jf 

Kfcti 

3 

J 

^*> 

i 

• 

^■i^^i 

■( 

HgpQ 

r 

^w4B 

1 

-  ^g^^. 

It's  the  fun  game  of 
the  year  —  Trash  ma  n . 

From  the  moment  you  sit 
down  to  play  you'll  be  thrilled  by 
this  exciting,  original,  laugh  a 
minute  game> 

VfHir  Job  may  look  e&ty  Is*  the  r 
of  the  world,  hut  you  know  the  hazai 
speeding  cars  and  pavement  cyclists  can 
both  shake  you  up.  Let's  (ace  it  cars  can 
*  he  fatal 

But  if  that  isn't  enough  you've  got  t 
other  problems  of  vicious  dogs,  the  after 
effects  of  overeating  in  the  transport  cafe  or  one 
too  many  f  n  the  boozer 

Not  only  will  you  be  gripped  by 
you'll  be  amazed  and  amused  by  the  high  quality 
graphics. 

With  seven  levels  of  play  featuring  three 
attempts  to  finish  the  game  (assuming  you  are  not 
run  over  by  a  car)  Trash  man  will  provide  even  the 
most  experienced  games  player  with  n  thrilling 
challenge-  1  or  2  player  option,  Hall  of  Fame  and 
Joystick  compatibility41  ensure  this  game  has  all  the 
best  arcade  features. 

Trashman  is  available  NOW  for  the  48K 
Spectrum.  Ask  for  It  today  at  your  local 
computer  store! 


Only  £5.95 


*Kerrtpsbxi.  Sinclair  Interface  2,  Ptotek  or  equiuoto 


~* 


ITAf 


V 


Software 


FREE  POST, 
Bath  8A2  4TD 


Tel:  0225  316924. 


HYPERBLASTER 

You  are  comma nd>ng  a  prototype 
bpac  tKrsfr  on  a  test  Ibgli!  when  you 
are  anacted  try  an  Alien  force 
Dare  you  l«sfl  your  H yper&l a$i  and 
ptyngje  into  Hyperspaca?  T5  screens 
Keyboard  martdfruvefabrfity  at  ship 
And  f^ang  powe* 


REALM  OF  THE  UNDEAD 

Can  you  hgrn  off  the  vampire*  to 
*each  me  suWftfranean  dungeons  of 
Dracuka  s  Castle,  where  you  release 
the  imprisoned  villagers  and 
Dracula,  arho  must  be  lined  to  his 
coWml&f  the  Final  chiN' 


Foe  use  with  the  Master 
QQHf BQHWTIQN  program.  ltm 

add-on  pack  grves  you  four  scenario* 

set  m  actual  20ih  Certify  Conflicts 

Afghanistan  Angola  Smai  and  Kent  Itfiswmg  the 

German  invasion  in  1940 

You  II  find  Ihe  Ml  ranged  LotMorwi  games  al 
leading  record  shops  end  pood  software  shops 

including  W  H  .Scrnih*,  Co-op  (selected  oil  Ms). 

John  Mwi/hh*  (selected  outtatsj,  Tiger  Tradef 

Speciru m.  Makro  NSS*  Reeled  outlets) 

.,  A  Lighting  Dealers 

Pleas*  send  me  th*  totowng  games; 

1  tu*  HrpM«M»fKp*tffbr!4iH  ti.es 

'     '  v*%  halm  □'  lh*  Uwtoftd  ^prtfrurn  *W    t*.« 

5?3E   cr«  »#*c«rjpi«*i&ii»^*Sfym*aH  tf.es 

tut 


P^OSfNCiWKWUPJP 


I  encio**  ■  cheque 'FQ  mad*  payabU*  to  M  C  Loihlorwn 
Pfea**  dvbit  my  Acctaa  Account  No 


Signature 
Name 


Addm* 


Postcode 


■7B4 


I IOTHLOR1EN  3>  "gj^p 

tw^tallC^NvvF.  MIMUHl^KQn  1lKtp»rt  I>h^Ui}  1Rf    l»i   ******  i0*i*i«l*4J 


Here  n  is  again,  the  Top  Twenty  thai  you  know  isn*i  fixed. 
Why?  Because  it  accurately  reflects  your  views  on  the 
software  scene. 

Another  useless  prize  goes  off  again  this  month;  three 
tapes  are  crawling  their  way  towards  David  Ma>  *  a  his 
wick,  London  W4  because  our  delightful  Dep.  Ed*  pulled 
David's  voting  slip  out  of  the  hag. 

Enter  the  draw  *vot  issue  hy  filling  in  the  form  below  i  at 
a  photcx :opy  ii  you  don  A  want  a  magazine  full  of  holes  i  tell 
ing  us  what  your  latest  raves  for  the  Spcccy  are.  We'll 
record  your  choices  and  enter  your  name  for  the  pri/e 
Wo* 

And  dont  forget  about  the  all- time  losers.  Tell  us  Ihe 
games  you  think  are  real  turkeys  and  you  just  might  get  a 
software  prize  for  that  m  well  —  ropey  stuff,  of  course. 


YS  TOP  20  READER  POU 


My  top  five  raves  on  the  Speccy  are 
1 


My  bottom  three  turkeys  on  the  Speccy  are: 

1 


Yes,  I'm  convinced  my  vote  is  a  major 
contribution  to  the  Editor's  insanity 
Stick  in  a  pillar  box  as  quick  as  pes',  with  your 
envelope  addressed  to: 

YSTOPTWENTY 

YOUR  SPECTRUM 

14 RATHBONE PLACE 

LONDON  W1P1DE 


THIS        LAST    ■ONTO 
MONTH    MONTH  IN  CHANT 


1    02 


2  03 


3 


2 


5  ^3 


8 


9 


3 


TO 


1 


11-^2 


12 


1403 


15 


1 


16^3 


17 


1 


18 


1 


19 


1 


20^2 


TOPTWENTY 


JET  SET  WILLY 

SOFTWARE  PROJECTS    ^ 


CHART 


SEQUEL  TO  MANIC  MINER 
GO  WITH  WILLY  INTO  60  MORE 
EXCITING  LOCATIONS 


MANIC  MINER 

SOFTWARE  PROJECTS 


JOIN  MINER  WILLY  IN  HIS  QUEST 
FOR  THE  MISSING  KEYS,  IN  20 
BIZARRE  AND  COLOURFUL  CAVERNS 


SCUBA  DIVE 

DURELL  SOFTWARE 


PUTCNYOURWETSUITAND  PLUNGE 
INTO  THE  ICY  DEPTHS  IN 
SEARCH  OF  TREASURE 


ATICATAC 

ULTIMATE 


LUNAR  JETMAN 

ULTIMATE 


ANT  ATTACK 


A  FULL  GRAPHICAL  ADVENTURE  IN 
AN  ARCADE  FORMAT  BUT  WATCH 
OUT  FOR  THE  GHOSTS! 


A  COMPLEX  ARCADE/ 

ADVENTURE  THAT  TAKES 
PLACE  ON  THE  MOON 


AN  AMAZING  3D  ADVENTURE  IN  THE  CITY  OF 
ANTESCHER  THAT  HAS  YOU  RFSCUING 

QUICKSI LVA  your  dumb  mate  from  killer  ants 


CHEQUERED  FLAG 

PSION 


FIGHTER  PILOT 

DIGITAL  INTEGRATIONS 


DEATHCHASE 

MfCROMEGA 


WHEEL1E 

MICROSPHERE 


JOIN  THE  GRAND  PRIX  CIRCUIT  AND 
RACE  SOME  OF  THE  GREATEST 
TRACKS  IN  THE  WORLD. 


A  3D  FLIGHT  SIMULATION  PROGRAM  THAT 
SITS  YOU  BEHIND  THE  CONTROLS  OF 
A  FIGHTER  PLANE 


REMEMBER  THE  BIKE  CHASE 
SCENE  FROM  RETURN  OF  THE  JEDI? 
ALL  HAS  BEEN  RECREATED 


UFE-QR-DEATH  RACE  AGAINST 
DOUBLE-DECKER  BUSES  AND 
MANIC  HEDGEHOGS 


THE  HOBBIT 

MELBOURNE  HOUSE 


BASED  ON  THE  BOOK  BY  TOLKIEN  YOU  TAKE  THE 
PART/V  OF  BILBO  BAGGINS  IN  SEARCH 
OF  DRAGON  S  TREASURE 


ALCHEMIST 

IMAGINE 


JETPAC 

ULTIMATE 


PYRAMID 

FANTASY , 


^  WIZARD  PROGRAM  WHICH  MANAGES  TO  BLUR 
THE  BORDERS  BETWEEN  ADVENTURE 
AND  ARCADE 


8UILD  A  SPACESHIP.  THEN  TREK 
THE  GALAXY  FOR  RARE  GE  MS 
AND  TREASURES 


THERE  ARE  120  COLOURFUL  ROOMS.  AND  ALL  YOU 
HAVE  TO  DO  IS  COLLECT  THE  CRYSTALS  —  THE 
TROUBLE  IS  ITS     £>    RAINING  ALIENS' 


YOU  TAKE  THE  ROLE  OF  AN 
,.OMl(A  ARACHEOLOGIST  LOOKING  FOR 
QUICKSI  LVA  TREASURE  IN  AN  OLD  MINE-MAZE 


HUNCHBACK 

OCEAN 


NIGHT  GUNNER 

DIGITAL  INTEGRATION^ 


FLIGHT  SIMULATION 

PSION 


HARRIER  ATTACK 

MARTECH/DURELL 


A  FAST-MOVING  ARCADE  CONVERSION 
JUMPING  THE  WALLS  TO  SAVE 
ESMERELDA 


ORIGINALLY  ON  THE  ZX6 1 .  THIS  HAS 
ALREADY  PROVED  ITSELF  ASA 
FAST-MOVING  ARCADE-TYPE  SIMULATION 


ORIGINAL  FLIGHT  SIMULATION  FOR 
THE  SPECCY  BY  WHICH  OTHERS 
ARE  JUDGED. 

ATTACK  THE  OCCUPANTS  OF  A 
SMALL  ISLAND  WITH  THE  VALIANT 
LADS  OF  THE  HARRIER  DIVISION 


CHUCKIEEGG 

A&F  SOFTWARE 


FARMER  GILES  HAS  TO  ROUND  UP 
ALL  THE  EGGS  BEFORE  THE  NASTIES 
GET  OUT  AND  EAT  UP  ALL  THE  CORN 


15 


THE  INDUSTRY  STANDARD 

INTERFACE 


EPSON 


css^ 


Al  las!  you  can  have  real  pnm 
pertarmanoe  trom  your  ZX  Spectrum  with  the 
3  Interlaces  As  me 
you  \o  link:  your  ZX  Spectrum 
to  any  or  a  vast  number  OI P  "^  tef*  w 

-tfry  standard  Centronics  input  you  can 
choose  the  printer  thai  suits  you/  nee 
iromhtghspee  -3  professional 

quality  printers 

We  recommend  Epson  F  C 

Setkcaha  OKI  Mlcroltne  Tandy  GP  J 15  Slar 
0  Shinwa  Brother  HR 1 5 

INTERFACE  t  -  ONLY  £55-00 

ply  plug  in  and  it  s  ready  io 
use  AJI  operating  commands 

are  held  ir.afiEfKOMsc. 
COFY  can  be  used  a  tl  haul  using 

up  valuable  user  RAM  COPY  will  allow  j  I 
reprodL  juuongmp! 

■nvauv.  eUtasha 

100  ami  250  Series  pnnler  Print  width 

from  32  character  to  lull  w 
depending  on  prmtef  used 

INTERFACE  S     ONLY £39 99 

Visually  identical  to  Interface  E  but 
itertace  S  also 
recognises  the  LU£  JT  com  mandi 

and  will  allow  print  width  selection  from  32 
characters  \q  full  wi  I 

m,  software  routines  will  need  io 
be  loaded  before  use  Full  screen  dump  to 
reproduce  high  resolution  graphics  u  also 


possible  and  supporting  software  is  supplied 
to  operate  this  (acuity  with  Epson  and 
Seikosha  pnnlei*  The  saitware  routines  that 
necessary  Io  initialise  the  interlace  are 
held  in  the  printer  butler  so  valuable  user 
RAM  will  noi  be  used  up  There  js  a  growing 
range  ot  Bustoes&'UhlltY  software  thai 
includes  these  routines  Del  ails  available  on 
request 

Either  interlace  simply  plugs  into  the 
ZX  Spectrum  expansion  port  or  interlace  and 

..Uy  cased  with  a  one  metre 
ribbon  cable  which  connects  to  ihe  printer  o| 
your  choice  Full  instructions  are  included 
and  driving  tattwapf  is  supplied  win 
1  menace S 

KEMPSTON  CENTRONICS  INTERFACE 
COMPATIBLE  SOFTWARE  UTILITIES 
FOR  THE  46K  SPECTRUM 

flNANCl  MANAGER  (OCP)     Mtflti  driven 

program  for  all  dome?!!    and  bu&tnett 
accounting  applications  £19.99 

ADDRESS  MANAGER  (OCR)     Simple 

index  filing  system  Ideal  lor  names  oddrosses 
etc  Various  search  lacOllies  ttf  95 

FULL  SCREEN  EDITORv  ASSEMBLER  tGCP) 

-  Allows  you  to  write  280  assembly  code  using 
lard  mnemonics  on  lui  £19  95 

WORD  PROCESSOR  (TA5WOPD  7WO|  - 
(TASJEAN) 
allowing  64  characters  per  line  and 

poratingall  -s^ing  lacijj^*:    £13,90 

O M  N  J  C AL c  (MICROSPHERE)     \  he  only 
spreadsheet  written  entirely  in  machine  code 
The  easy  and  tost  way  ot  solving  any  numerical 
problem  ideal  tor  cash  flow  lorecasling  io 
concrete}  sires*  analysis  £9*  t§ 

MA5TERFLLE  (CAMFRIU  SYSTEMS) 
7  and  retrieval  syvtem  tor  domestic  or 
business  use  Fttes  can  be  loaded  and  saved 
independently  Microdrive  compatible      £9  9S 


NOW  WE  CAN  ALSO  SUPPLY  YOWR 
PRINTER, 

We  ve  looked  al  the  printers  curranily 
available  and  have  selected  what  we  zeel  is 
best  value  Jor  roorjey  in  dot  main*  and  daisy 
wheel  printers 

EPSON  RX-IQ  F/T    A  dot  matrix  printer 
allowing  full  graphics  dumping  and  a 
choice  oi  printing  stytes  Speed  100  C  P  S 
Price  £329  Inc,  VAT  and  Delivery 

BROTHER  HRI 5     A daisywheeJ printer 

■ 
shots,  documents  etc  Many  typefaces 
available  by  changing  dauywheel 
Dup  licatjon  facility  but  no  graphics  Speed 
Up  to  II 
Price  £43 S  Inc.  VAT  and  Delivery 

Interface  S 
Available  liom 


msms     \\H  SMITH 

COMf  UTt*  CtHTttS 


HEmpsron 

■^  MCRO  ■  ELECTRONICS  LTD 

Unil  30  Singer  Way  Wotouffi  Road 

Inti.. 

>fd.  MK42  7AF  Tel  f MM )  ft&6633 

Telex  826078  KEMPMfG 

All  pnc«  uurjud*  vw  und  r  *  P 
Ov«reaasatc!*n  ptaxi*  add  $4  0U  F  *  P 

i  ;*t  and  wdwan  Prnttm  ^ 

:TVrn,H  li  *-.!!  .'     Sp?,     j- 

TRADE  ENQUIRIES  ^ 

WELCOME  ^k 


SOMEQL 
THEORY. . . 

With  regard  lo  Andrew 
Fennel  I  s  interesting  article 
on  Super  Basic,  the 
provisional  documentation 
seems  to  indicate  that  only 
variables  are  allowed  in 
SELect.  so  in  Listing  2a  you 
would  need  to  writer 

iQ4S  lET  diruii  =  CODE  aS 
!  DSD  SELec!  D-Pf  ckirc*4e 

IDEQONtltrcrif  =  13 

And  so  on.  SELect  actually  is 
not  new;  it's  been  part  of  the 
draft  ANSI  Basic  standard 
for  some  time  and  at  least  one 
version  (for  Honeywell  Level 
66  computers)  is  now 
generally  available  The 
ANSI  SELect  can  handle 
both  numbers  and  strings  and 
allows  you  to  put  expressions 
on  SELect  statements. 

Regarding  procedures, 
CROC  (thankfully,  uiitike 
BBC  Basic)  may  and  indeed 
should  be  separate  from  the 
procedure  name,  so  line  1000 
in  Listing  4a  should  be: 

1000  DEFlil  PROCilin  p  limit  |l| 

Examples  of  calling  pformat 
are: 

pirat|3i65| 

plirpit  priiciftf -Hitiml 

Dr  Nigel  Brown.  Plsgah 
Research,  Dyfcd 


...ANDQL 
PRACTICE 

Id  like  to  tell  you  about  the 
Independent  QL  User's 
Group  that  Brian  Pain  and  I 
have  formed.  Besides  being 
Acting  Chairman  of  the 
group.  1  edit  Quante*  the 
group's  newsletter.  three 
issues  of  which  have  been 
produced  to  date. 

Membership  of  the  group  is 
by  subscription  to  the  news- 
letter (currently  14  25  for  six 
issues).  The  contact  is  Brian 
Pain.  Acting  Secretary1  to  the 
group h  who  can  be  reached  on 
10908)  56427 1 .  His  address 
is:  24  Oxford  Si,  Stony 
Stratford,  Milton  Keynes. 
Bucks, 

Leon  Heller,  Newport 
Pagncll 


MONITORING  THE 
SITUATION 

Referring  to  your  article  in 
YS  issue  2  about  monitor 
connections  for  the  Spectrum. 
I  did  this  on  my  issue  2 
machine  some' time  ago  and, 
although  it  worked.  I  got  a 
grainy  picture.  This  was 
cured  by  connecting  a  further 
link  between  the  two  points 
provided  below  the  capacitor 


FONT 


Is  there  something  you're  not  telling 

us?  Write  in  to  Forum,  Your  Spoctrum, 

Rathbone  Place,  London  W1  P  1 DE. 


on  the  top  edge  of  the  board 
by  the  modulator.  This  link* 
up  an  earth  path  round  the 
edge  of  the  board  and  has 
resulted  in  a  tremendous 
improvement  in  the  display  of 
all  the  issue  2s  I've  tried  it  on. 
The  places  to  be  linked  can 
also  be  found  by  two  solder 
"pads'  in  the  holer  cm  the 
board. 
David  Oram,  Liversedge 


MICROORIVING 

Fm  pitting  my  money  where 
my  mouth  is  and  have 
cancelled  my  order  for 
another  welt -known  magazine 
which  supposedly  caters  for 
Sinclair  users  but  which  is  in 
fact  full  of  listings  suitable  foe 
five-year  olds  {no  disrespect 
lo  that  age  group!  and  free 
advertising  in  the  form  of 
news*  without  commentary 
on  the  merits  of  the  products 
(usually  including  telephone 
numbers  and  addresses  for 
the  unwary).  Bcwpre:  1  am 
watching.  My  order  is  now  for 
YS 

The  main  point  of  this 
letter  is  the  rights  of  users 
(after  all,  we've  heard  plenty 
about  software  houses  trying 
topiotect  themselves). 
Tasman  is  one  of  the  few  far- 
sighted  software  houses  that 
assists  its  customers  in  using 
the  hardware  they  own  to  the 
full,  and  Campbell  Systems  is 
another  They  not  only 
encourage  and  facilitate  the 
making  of  hack-up  copies  of 
one's  own  valuable  software 
but  also,  by  providing  useful 
notes,  allow  you  to  use  your 
Microdrive*  as  you  intended 
them  to  be  used  when  you 
ordered  them. 

Of  course,  software  houses 
have  the  right  to  protect  their 
interests  as  far  as  commercial 
piracy  goes,  but  their 
customers  also  have  rights. 
Sophisticated  protection 
methods  seem  to  positively 
encourage  copying  as  it 
provides  the  user  with  a 
challenge-  Once  the 
protection  system  is  beaten, 
it's  only  human  nature  to 
show  off  one's  cleverness  by 
handing  out  copies.  Tasman 
and  Campbell  Systems  don't 


seem  to  be  suffering. 

Having  spent  a  fortune  on 
software  —  probably  more 
than  on  my  hardware  —  I 
have  the  right  to  use  that 
software  as  1  deem  best.  I 
don't  wish  to  make  money  by 
copying  and  selling  pirated 
software  (the  law  of  the  land 
should  cater  for  that),  hut  I  do 
want  to  load  software  in 
seconds  not  fractions  of  an 
hour. 

I'd  like  to  point  out  that, 
while  software  is  often  not 
immediately  compatible  (and 
I'd  encourage  magazines  to 
comment  on  compatibility  in 
reviews)       there's  virtually 
no  software  anywhere  that 
cannot  be  transferred  in  spite 
of  the  efforts  of  software 
houses  and  the  thought  less 
ness  of  Sinclair  Research. 
John  Ashplant*  Enfield 


JUST 
INTERRUPTING 

Your  readers  may  be 
interested  in  my  method  of 
implementing  interrupt  mode 
2  routines  ir  ihe  I  register  is 
loaded  with  I9H*  the  inter- 
rupt vectors  jump  to  the 
routine  at  address  5D22H+ 
which  is  a  short  distance  in  to 
what  is  normally  the  Basic 
program  area. 

By  calling  the  ROM 
MAKE     ROOM  routine  at 
1655H  with  the  HL  registers 
holding  5CC AH  and  the  BC 
register  pair  holding  the 
number  of  bytes  required, 
space  can  be  provided  in 
memory  between  the  channel 
information  and  the  start  of 
Basic, 

1  loaded  a  few  toolkit 
routines  which  IVe  written 
into  this  area  and  have  now 
incorporated  Ian  Turtle's 
clock  routine  at  address 

5D22H. 
The  MAKE     ROOM 

|  routine  also  works  in  the 
Microdrive  maps  area 
although  if  s  then  also 
necessary  to  increment  the 
CHANS  systems  van  able 
because  the  routine  only 
changes  pointers  down  to 
PROG.  If  Microdrives  are 
itMd,  then  additional  channel 
information  is  defined  and 


this  will  have  to  be  considered 
when  using  these  areas  for 
machine  code. 
Alan  Rooney .  Stockport 

ISUG  LIVES! 

Wc  have  heard  it  said,  yet 
again,  that  there's  no 
international  organisation 
dedicated  to  the  Sinclair 
Research  range  of  computers. 

May  we  point  nut  that  this 
is  definitely  not  the  case!  The 
International  Sinclair  User 
Group  was  formed  in  August 
'83  following  the  closure  of 
Tim  H artnell's  National  ZX 
User  Group.  U*s  grown 
steadily  since  then,  and  now 
boasts  members  in  the  UK, 
Eire,  Holland.  Germany, 
Spain,  Malta.  Saudi  Arabia. 
Malaysia.  Singapore  and 
Australia.  The  age  range  of 
our  membership  is  from  1 1  lo 
7 1  years,  both  male  and 
female. 

Membership  of  ISUG 
brings  a  monthly  newsletter 
entitled  ZX  Prrss  and  a 
discount  of  20  per  cent  on  a 
very  large  range  of  software, 
as  well  as  contact  with  other 
ZX  users  around  the  world. 

New  members  arc  always 
welcome  *  whether  you  are  an 
accomplished  programmer,  a 
complete  beginner  or  just 
'play  around  now  and  again 
and  would  like  lo  Icam  mote. 
If  you'd  like  further  details, 
drop  us  a  line  at  TSUG,  189 
Roschill  Road,  Burn  lev. 
Lanes.  BB 1 1  2QX. 
Vic  Webber,  ISUG 


YOUR FULLER 
PROBLEMS 

1  was  delighted  to  see  that 
Fuller  is  not  having  problems 
(issue  3,  Front  lines), 
However,  on  the  Nirengthof 
the  article  I  decided  to  try 
again  with  this  much- 
maligned  company,  My  first 
attempt  to  obtain  an  FDS 
keyboard  and  buffer  began  in 
November  1985,  when  my 
telephone  order  was  duly 
taken  with  credit  card  number 
for  payment.  Christmas  came 
and  went,  and  in  mid  January 
1 484  ]  tried  again  and  again 
to  make  contact.  I  eventually 
got  through,  lo  be  told  my 
ivrder  was  being  dispatched 
tomorrow]  The  next  week  I 
got  through  again  and  was 
told  it  had  definitely  been 
despatched  —  but  if  it  hadn't. 
Ihcy  would  send  another.  In 
late  February  after  a  repeat  ol 
this  information  1  managed  to 
speak  to  someone  who 
informed  me  that  there  had 
been  a  mistake  in  the  orders 
(only  natural  with  such  a 
common  surname  as  mine ), 
and  my  order  was  given 
again.  This  time  I  was 


t7 


UPGRADE  YOUR  ZX  SPECTRUM  NOW! 

The'CHEETAH''  32K  Rampack  simply  plugs  into  the  user  port  at  the  rear  of 
your  computer  and  increases  the  memory  instantly  to  48K. 

•  Fully  compatible  with  all  accessories  via  rear  edge  connector. 

•  No  need  to  open  computer  and  invalidate  guarantee. 

•  Why  send  your  computer  away  and  wait  weeks  for  upgrade. 

•  Fully  cased,  tested  and  guaranteed. 

Why  wait  any  longer? 

ONLY  £39.95    inc.  VAT  and  p&p 


NOW  MAKE  YOUR  SPECTRUM  AND 

ZX81  TALK! 

The  CHEETAH"  Sweet  Talker1  just  plugs  into  the  back  of  the  computer  using 
the  existing  power  supply.  Based  on  an  allophone  system  you  can  easily 
program  any  word,  sentence  or  phrase.  Fully  cased,  tested,  guaranteed  and 
compatible  with  all  accessories  via  rear  edge  connectors.  Complete  with 
demonstration   cassette   and   full   instructions.    No   more   lonely  nights! 

Simply  incredible  at  £29.75 

Also  available: 

16K  Rampack  for  ZX81  ,   £19.75    64K  Rampack  for  ZX81  £44.75 

Prices  include  VAT.  Postage  and  Packing,  Delivery  normally  14  days.  Export  orders 

at  no  extra  cost  Dealer  enquiries  welcome. 

Send  cheque/PO  now  to:- 

CHEETAH  MARKETING  LIMITED 

Oopt  VS1 .  24  Ray  Strsnt.  London  EC1  T«l:  01-033  4909 

Please  quote  when  ordering  whether  Spectrum  Of  ZX  ownei 


32K  Rampack  and  Sweet  Talker  available  from  target  branches  of  ' 


JohnMenzies 


Computers  tor  All  dealers.  ana  WHSMITH  fy 


FO/W 


.    I 


informed  that  credit  cards 
were  no*  acceptable  and  the 
buffer  wis  riot  then  available 
—  no  order  was  pj  ven. 

Today  I  tried  again,  ringing 
the  number  in  your  newspieee 
ind  their  advertisement  in  the 
time  issue,  only  to  be  told 
that  the  number  is  now  05 1  - 
709  9280.  When  I  eventually 
got  through  1  was  told  the 
keyboard  was  in  stock  but  the 
buffer  was  not  and,  when 
pressed,  they  told  me  it  might 
be  two  or  three  weeks'.  I  was 
also  informed  that  only 
Access  cards  were  accepted, 
and  those  only  in  orders  sent 
by  post. 

I  trust  that  this  information 
will  be  helpful  to  those  still 
inclined  to  do  business  with 
this  company.  I  am  certainly 
no  longer  one  of  them . 
CG  l.undgren.  Nottingham 


GROCKLESHELP 
OUT 

Please  (on  your k nets,  scum. 
Ed  )  give  our  club  a  mention 
in  h  Your  Speccy\ 

Meetings  are  held  in  the 
Roche  Co-op  rooms  twice  a 
week:  Monday  7- 1 0pm  and 
Friday  7 -9pm.  Cost  of 
membership  is  a  meagre 
£1  20  a  year. 
Mr  M  Richard.  Roche. 
Cornwall  Tel:  (0726) 
B9047J 


JUST  A  NIBBLE 

Why  is  it  all  you  computer 
buffs  seem  to  have  forgotten 
the  days  when  you*d  never 
RANDomised  a  USR  and  a 
byte  sounded  like  your  next 
meat"? 

I  must  admit  that  Ton i 
Baker's  article  in  your  first 
i-  aroused  a  faint  hope 
that  all  was  not  lost  —  she 
actually  explained  what  was 
happening  and  what  we  had 
to  do!  But  alack  and  alas, 
you*ve  gone  ail  toplofty  on 
us 

My  cupboard  is  LOADed 
with  tapes;  some  are  games 
j  half  of  which  don't  work)* 
rod  some  are  utilities  ( half  of 
which  1  don't  know  how  to 
work). 

Take  the  tantalising  article 
by  Andrew  Pcnncll  in  your 
second  issue  K  "Those  Moody 
Microdrives\  Being  the  proud 
owner  of  such  a  beast  and 
unable  to  save  certain 
machine  code  programs  on  it, 
I  leapt  joyfully  into  action 
with  this  wonderful  cure-all 
But  stay,  should  I  LOAD  it, 
RUN  it  then  NEW  it  before 
LO  A  Ding  my  program^  No 
joy  there  —  all  the  bytes  for 
the  magical  cure-all  had 
magically  vanished!  Try 


again,  LOAD  it,  RUN  it,  and 
then  painstakingly  remove  all 
the  Basic  line  by  line  from 
the  magical  cure-all  Eureka! 
The  bytes  remain.  Now 
RAND  USR  at  +  41,  load 
unhappy  program  —  nothing. 
Oh,  of  course,  the  program 
uses  the  address  si  +  41  it 
self,  so  I'll  put  the  cure-all  at 
I  higher  address  Should  I 
CLEAR  first?  Lud.  I  don't 
know.  Whatever!  The  thing 
still  dkJn't  work. 

Please  could  you  treat  us 
like  a  hunch  of  idiots  and 
guide  us  patiently  (or  am  I  the 
only  fool?) 
Mt»  J  Wood,  A  Urine  ham 

Although  the  mag  is  aimed  at 
the  experienced  user,  we  do 
fry  fo  make  if  accessible  for 
the  beginner.ffyou  want  to 
move  the  routine  to  a  higher 
address*  change  the  value  of 
st  in  line  iOand  CLEAR  at 
m.  if  your  code 
CLEA  Rs  lower  than  that* 
you  don  V  need  to  CLEAR  at 
all.  IVhat  can  I  say  to  your 
last  question  —  apart  from 
'No  comment?'*  Jmuble- 
shooting  Pete. 


OF  THE 


When  your  magazine  first 
appeared  I  was  pleased  that  it 
Mtmed  to  be  pointed  at  a 
more  intelligent  I  and  older"1  \ 
sel  of  readers  than  other 
magazines.  So  1  feci  \ cry 
irritated  at  the  use  of  the  word 
Speccy*  frequently 
throughout  the  lexl  I  wish, 
Mr  Editor,  you  would  instruct 
your  subeditors  to  search 
and  the  word  with 

something  leas  juvenile. 
EG  Matthews.  Dorset. 

How  about  the  Sinclair 
Research  ZSO-based 
automatic  electronic 
apparatus  for  making 
calculations  or  controlling 
operations  that  *f* 
expressible  in  numerical  ur 
logical  terms?  fNah*  not  long 
enough.  Ed.)  (/  vasjus' 
foltowin* instructions.  Sub 
Ed) 


IS  THIS  MAN  ILL? 

\  \c  always  been  slightly 
nauseated  by  the  abundance 
of 'Your  magazine  is 
wonderful  type  letters  so 
often  found  in  other  computer 
publications  What  sort  of 
creep  would  make  the  effort 
of  sitting  down,  writing  such 
wet  compliments  and  then 
wasting  1  ftp  to  mail  jtf 

Then,  lite  Hcrculc  Poire* 
in  che  penultimate  chapter,  i< 
dawned  on  me.  There  was  an 
ulterior  motive  behind  all  the 
"to-ihe -skies*  tvpc  praise  I 
kept  reading  -MONEY! 
I  it  1 0  for  every  letter  printed' 
it  said  at  the  top  of  the  page, 
and  there  lay  the  answer,  The 
most  complimentary  corres- 
pondence won  the  cash  and 
all  the  other  letters  were 
thrown  in  the  bin.  Quite  a 
good  scheme  really,  con- 
sidering how  totally 
know  ledge  less  their  resident 
"experts'  are,  Even  the 
dumbest  questions,  like 
"Where  do  Atari  cartridges 
plug  into  my  ZX8 1 ?'  and 
*  Why  does  my  Spectrum  keep 
printing  funny  messages  at 
the  bottom  of  the  screen  when 
I  turn  it  on?h  are  ineptly 
answered. 

Having  said  all  that  you 
can  imagine  my  horror  when  I 
started  to  read  your  magazine 
—  because  I  found  myself 
wanting  to  write  telling  you 
how  good  it  is.  I  wanted  to 
say  how  I  liked  seeing  a 
magazine  totally  devoted  to 
my  machine  —  without  the 
other  90  per  cent  for  the 
BBC.  Commie  64.  VIC  20, 
Dragonk  ZX8I  +  and  MTX 
that  the  other  leading  brands 
offer.  Didn't  I  like  seeing 
simple,  unbiased  software 
reviews,  showing  actual 
colour  screen  photos  of  every 
game?  Sinclair  User  says 
everything  is  fantastic  and 
shows  unrelated  drawing  of 
the  action,  whereas  Your 
Computer  only  features  two 
or  three  games  and  their 
reviewers  are  too  keen  on 
witty  comments  to  put  across 
a  sensible  evaluation.  In  your 
magazine  [  soon  discovered 
that  I  agreed  with  your  view 
of  games  I'd  seen  and  could 
therefore  trust  what  you  said 
about  the  ones  I  hadn  t 

I  wanted  to  say  how  I  liked 
your  Misfires'  article.  Yes 
there  is  a  lot  of  rubbish  on  the 
market  and  we  should  be 
warned. 

Basically,  I  wanted  to  write 
you  a  complimentary  letter 
and  thus  join  the  group  of 
insecure  creeps  I'd  grown  to 
loath  in  the  other  magazines. 
So  I  did.  and  this  is  it.  Your 
magazine  is  the  best  around 


for  the  Spectrum  user. 

I  do  have  one  quibble, 
however,  if  you  made  it  more 
clear  how  prospective 
contributions  should  be  sent 
to  you  I  think  you" J  be 
inundated  with  programs  and 
vuch  For  example,  would  a 
■tte  suffice  and  would  I 
get  it  hack*  Do  you  want  a 
printout'-  Will  you  pay  me ? 
How  much?  These  questions 
are  important 

I  almost  wrote  out  a  cheque 
lor  vour  ZIP  Compiler  Hue 
changed  my  mind  at  the  last 
minute  It  wasn't  clear  in  the 
article  —  which  was 
incidentally  very  easy  to 
understand  —  whether  the 
compiled  code  would  run 
independently  of  the  Zllp 
program.  I  already  have  the 
PS?  MCoder  compiler  and 
this  is  one  of  the  main 
problems  1  have  encountered, 

Does  it  produce  bona  fide 
machine  code  or  just  cleverly 
engineered  jumps  to  ROM 
routines?  Having  shelled  oui 
110  for  my  other  compiler. 
Vm  now  very  wary  {Simon  O" 
*  ///  be  writing  to  you  -  Ed. ) 

As  my  letter  draw  ^  to  a 
close,  I  realise  that  it  n  now 
probably  too  long  lo  print 
anyway,  A  shame  really  since 
I  longed  to  see  my  name  .  m 

!foar  pages.  Thank  you  again 
or  a  good  maga/me.  I  shall 
took  rorward  to  the  neit  issue 
with  anticipation 
James  Re  id.  Reading 

We  d  love  to  see  your 
programs,  cassettes,  Micro* 
drive  cartridges,  articles r  and 
anything  else  you  'd  like  to 
send  us  (plain  wrapper 
please).  Afieran  arm- 
twisting  session,  our 
accountant  has  been  known 
to  make  gencrttus 
contributions  to  people  *$ 
finances  —  but  the  material 
has  got  to  be  good r  Was  that 
an  inept  enough  answer  for 
you* Ed  (By  the  way,  your 
cheque's  in  the  post.) 


AS  YOU  WEREN'T 

On  looking  through  issues  1 
and  2  of  YSW I  notice  in  issue 
2  that  you  apologised  for 
mixing  up  the  screen  shots  of 
I  etnor's  Lair  and  JD 
Strategy  in  issue  I. 

I  don't  know  about  3D 
Strategy  but  the  I'elnor's 
Lair  display  is  alright !  By  the 

I  offer  I  Dp 
Roy  Stead,  (author  or  The 
Domain  of  Kpsilon). 
Cheshire 

lQP?!?nVhararemu- 
made  of  money?  U\* 
would  n  7  to ke  a  penny  more 
than5p  £</.fls~ 


10 


GOLD  COLLECTION  ■  GOLD  COLLECTION  ■  GOLD  COLLECTION  ■  GOLD  COLLECTION  ■ 


"The  Quill 


48K  Spectrum 


£1495 


The  Quill  is  i  major  new  utility  written  in  machine  code  which  allows  even 
the  novice  programmer  to  produce  high -speed  machine  code  adventures 
of  superior  quality  to  many  available  at  the  moment  without  any 
knowledge  of  machine  code  whatsoever. 

Using  a  menu  selection  system  you  may  create  well  over  200  locations, 
describe  them  and  connect  routes  between  them.  You  may  then  fill  them 
with  objects  end  problems  of  your  choice.  Having  tested  your  adventure 
you  may  alter  and  experiment  with  any  section  with  the  greatest  of  ease 
A  part  formed  adventure  may  be  saved  to  tape  for  later  completion.  When 
you  have  done  so  The  Quill  wilt  allow  you  to  produce  a  copy  of  your 
adventure  which  will  run  independently  of  the  main  Quill  editor,  so  that 
you  may  give  copies  away  to  your  friends  The  Quill  is  provided  with  a 
detailed  tutorial  manual  which  covers  every  aspect  of  Its  use  in  writing 
adventures. 


Magic  CMtlt 
UJ     R*uti<  the  Phnc***  from  tha  Magic 


From  The  Golden  Nib  Of  ffij 
The  Quill  ?£3 

Comes  a  Gourmet  Feast 


Hungry  Adventurers 

Volume  1 

of  the 


1 

[>avil'a  lijind 

UJ    Rescue  the  Phcwm*  from  tha  Magic        _    ^^         ^^     ^^  j,  ^m -^ 

£  ZSZSir* " **"*"" "*  GOLD  COLLECTION 


Eicapa  from  the  infimout  phion  «■ 
marb*  impo»»tbl#r  but  wKn  r~ 
atlamativ*  Haw  yovl  HJ 


Can  iftm  turvive  and  compWi  your 
mlaatefi  hag*.  In  the  ally  ever  enemy 
tantery? 


Anindbandar 
Only  you  alona  can  mava  th»  world 
from    (he    tarrtbie    power    of    the 

Mtodboftder 


Help  Barae*  tecover  the  ireaayrei  of 
hta  anceetora  from  the  wnderwotfal  of 

mythology 


A  Superb  collection  of  adventures  for  the  48K 
Spectrum  written  with  the  Quill, 
From  the  fertile  imagination*  of  many  author*,  we  m 
have  selected  this  fine  volume  of  ad  vent  urea  for  t 
you  to  collect.  Each  ed  venture  Is  complete  in  it  self  ^ 
end  is  presented  In  the  distictive  livery  of  the  fr 
series  to  grace  your  software  shelf  es  you  build  up  V 
the  collection,  y 

The  adventures  ere  priced  a*  only  £5.96  each. 


^   Selected  trtles  available  from  good  computer 

Whatamthifcny  of  daithandinirigua    shops  nationwide  including;-  f 

iathaitolafiSinclfva  Diamond?  W.  H.  Smiths    Boots   Manzies 


o 

p 

o 

UJ 

L  f 

0 

M 

H 

1 

1  GILSOFT 

U   30  Hawthorn  Road 
Q    Barry 

tI    Soth  Glamorgan 
n    CF6  8LE 

»:  (0446)  732765 


W.  H.  Smiths,  Boots,  Menzies 
Or  direct  from  us  by  post  or  telephone 

SAE  for  full  details  of  our  range 

Dealer  enquiries  welcome 


Africa  Gardana 
What  (i  tha  tacral  of  tha  datartad 
Hotal  and  wfMf a  at  a  all  tha  guaatt? 

Credit  Card  Order  Una 

Personally  Manned  fof  24  tiou" 

«:  0222  41361  Ext  430 


GOLD  COLLECTION  ■  GOLD  COLLECTION  ■  GOLD  COLLECTION  e>  GOLD  COLLECTION 


now 


CHANNELS 
AMD 

STREAMS 

YS's  own  M  r  Fix-it,  Ian 
Beards  mo  re.  guides  you 

through  the  rapids  of 

channels  and  streams.  For 

theory,  philosophy,  bugs  and 

fixes  —  write  to  /an  c/o 

Spectrolysis.  Your 

Spectrum,  14  Rath  bone 

Place,  London  W1P  WE. 


MEEEfli 


"Open  Channel  D."  And  with  thai 
Napoleon  Solo  and  Ilya  Whatshisname 
go  steaming  into  another  exciting  ad- 
venture. Those  of  you  in  the  over 
twenty-five  bathchair  brigade  will 
recognise  the  Man  From  Uncle  televi- 
sion series  as  the  source  of  this  famous 
quote.  As  for  those  of  you  too  young  to 
remember  the  series,  well.  .  .why 
worry.  After  all  you  have  an  all- 
smging.  aJI-dancing  Speccy  computer 
—  and  ves.  you  too  can  "Open  Channel 
D"  —  well,  *4'  actually.  Or  can  you? 

CHANNELLING 
CONFUSION 

In  fact,  channels  and  streams  seem  to  be 
the  cause  of  a  disproportionate  amount 
of  confusion  —  ce  ria  i  nl  y  the  y  se  e  mm  iv 
understood  and  misrepresented.  Many 
people  have  been  disappointed  that 
simply  entering  OPEN  #4  doesn't  give 
them  a  new  channel.  Perhaps  one  major 
reason  for  this  is  the  fact  ihai  all  the*#' 
commands  are,  in  fact,  stream  com- 
mands! Despite  various  attempts  to 
explain  what  actually  happens,  il  is  is  a 
commonly  held  and  quite  fundamental 
misunderstanding. 

At  its  simplest,  a  channel  is  a  routine 
(orsuiteof  routines)  in  machine  code.  A 
stream  is  the  path  by  which  ihc  channel 
is  joined  to  or  is  accessed  by  the  user  in 
Basic  Perhaps  the  first  thing  that  needs 
clarifying  is  the  relationship  between 
the  channel  and  the  hardware  peri- 
pheral with  which  ifs  commonly 
associated.  This  is  certainly  the  place 
where  channels  were  intended  for  use 
by  Sinclair  Research,  but  what's  thai 
go*  to  do  with  it?  Your  Spectrum 
wouldn't  exist  if  the  Speccy  was  only 
used  for  what  it  was  intended.  Anyway, 
of  the  three  channels  we  can  use  on  the 
normal  Spectrum  minus  Interface  L  all 
ate  hardware  orientated  (dealing  as 
they  do  with  the  upper  and  lower  screen 
and  the  printer),  Ifs  interesting  that  the 
one  you  can  t  get  at  deals  with  creat- 
ing workspace. 

This  use  of  a  channel  to  access  work- 


space routines  is  a  giveaway  to  the  true 
nature  of  streams  and  channels.  In  the 
other  three  cases  it's  often  said  that 
somehow  that  channel  is  the  printer  — 
it's  not  Instead,  in  the  case  of  Channel  3 
for  example,  it's  the  suite  of  routines 
that  control  the  printer  The  same  idea 
applies  to  the  two-screen  area,  where 
instead  we  are  dealing  with  display 
routines.  Perhaps  somewhere  down  in 
the  deep  inky- blackness  of  your  minds, 
a  vague  glim  me  r  of  awareness  is  starting 
10  develop.  Can  streams  and  channels 
be  used  to  access  your  own  machine 
code  routines?  After  a  IK  it  does  seem  as 
though  streams  and  channels  are  used 
to  place  machine  code  between  Basic 
and  a  peripheral?  Why  indeed?  And 
yes,  this  is  where  channels  and  streams 
Jo  come  into  their  own. 

BACK  TO  BASICS 

Now  is  the  time  when  those  who  are 
tmpatie  n  t  to  rush  to  the  ir  com  pu  ters  and 
after  a  quick  glance  at  the  manual 
smugly  begin  PoKEingthc  RAM  —  so 
as  to  e i tend  the  channel  area.  After 
that,  a  quick  trip  into  the  stream  data 
and  .  .  Bob's  your  uncle.  Only  he  isn't! 
If  only  you  could  get  rid  of  those  pesky 
error  codes,  and  if  only  the  predefined 
channel  specifiers  worked.  Sadly, 
you're  stuck  with  playing  around  with 
the  lower  screen,  upper  screen  and  prin- 
ter, and  of  course,  not  being  a  noddy 
user,  you  want  the  thing  to  point  to  vour 
own  routines,  not  those  of  the  R&M 
Now  that  you've  calmed  down  I  ha  ve  to 
tell  you  that  setting  up  a  new  channel 


can  only  be  done  from  machine  code, 

Just  as  a  reference  try  10  OPEN  #2, 
"P".  RUN  this  and  then  try  to  PRINT 
something.  It  prints  on  the  printer,  not 
the  screen.  So  what  use  are  such  silly 
games?  Well,  just  to  point  out  that  the 
*#"  commands  really  do  only  recognise 
certain  specifiers  in  Basic. 

As  long  as  you  slick  to  what  the  com- 
puter gives  you,  then  you  can  open 
every  stream  and  channel,  except  that 
they  II  be  the  same.  Another  aspect  of 
channels  is  thai  they  can  be  used  to  send 
data  in  both  directions  —  and  the  fact 
we  can  play  silly  games  actually  belies 
Lhe  real  potential  of  using  channels,  [t 
really  is  useful  to  keep  in  mind  that  a 
channel  is  a  set  of  routines  and  not  a 
peripheral  as  such  —  and  a  stream  is  just 
a  path.  Its  performance  lies  in  the  fact 
that  it  simply  goes  from  one  place  to 
another.  No  controls  are  needed;  all 
that  has  to  be  done  is  for  the  route  to  be 
Attached  to  its  destination. 

Try  entering  the  example  program 
(which  if  you  look  closely  gives  you  a 
two-for-one  bargain  I.  Ii  is  very  simple, 
just  a  series  ofPEEKs  into  the  STRMS 
area  and  the  CHANS  area.  However, 
you'll  probably  find  the  inform  a  lion 
very  useful  because  it  shows  clearly 
how  Sinclair  Research  uses  streams 
and  channels,  One  note,  however  — 
you  should  get  your  address  for  the  start 
of  the  channels  area  by  PEE  King  the 
systems  variable,  r  ve  used  a  Spectrum 
without  the  interface  and  gone  straight 
in  with  the  start  address.  Please  remem- 
ber to  do  as  1  say,  not  as  i  do.  By  the  way. 


The  Streams  And 
Channels  Routine 


mm  flTvtufw 


3 
9 

4    Lit    V 
*    PRlHT     - 

f   PH| HI 

io  rm  -*i   to  M  vnP  2 

»  LET    *-!»*'»- 

1*  LfT    fr~*M 

44  If     *■-]    NHD    ¥'  itt    T*4TH      PHlHT    i*    "I 

»  PHIHT     .|T4    l|»l"     'I****     l|l     P*lHT 

+0    PHIHT     TAP    77|f-IZh    #»PtMJC    H*Z3* 
feB  LET    v*r*l 
TO  H 

ioo  wrap 
il* 

ISO  I 
144 

300  LET    *-Z*TlA 
*»   FO*    y-|     TO    • 

*oo  r»   ■-]    TO  2 
4H  LET   4***1 

p»   PHlHT    *|  ■    -|PEEP    *****    li|i    PHInt 
I*    *fPWC    Hi 
*»»   PHIHT     TH*    77|.P¥EH     ••PEAK    H*M* 

490  LET    ****1 
TOO  HltT    f 


-1 

23572 

II 

23373 

0 

u 

0 

13374 

1 

25979 

O 

i 

I 

7337* 

1 

2337  7 

0 

i 

2 

23978 

1* 

235/* 

0 

i* 

3 

23380 

16 

23381 

O 

t* 

4 

733S2 

0 

23983 

0 

o 

3 

23384 

o 

73389 

0 

6 

6 

23386 

0 

23087 

o 

0 

7 

23388 

0 

23389 

0 

0 

m 

23990 

4 

233»l 

0 

e 

9 

233*2 

0 

233^3 

tf 

8 

to 

233*4 

0 

Z3393 

o 

0 

11 

23918 

0 

233*7 

o 

8 

12 

233*8   0 

23399 

e 

0 

13 

23*00 

0 

23401 

0 

o 

14 

23*02 

0 

23*03 

o 

o 

IS 

23*04 

o 

23*09 

o 

0 

Printout  From  The 
Channels  Program 


OM    PHIHT    **■     -,P«T1L    #(-       -'JM 

41   PUCK 

*|  -     " 

*0O  LET    *-#*l 

4»  PHIHT 

100*  Hill    r 

MOO  PHIHT    «|*    -»P€i*    * 

1  too   *TQP 

Printout  From  The 
Streams  Program 

9  L  byttv     h  Byt* 


-3   23368  I 
-2   23370  6 


23369 
23371 


0 
O 


1 
6 


2373* 
23736 
23738 

8 
1 

23733   240 
23737    33 

-    LOAD    - 

61  441) 
9449 

23739 
737*1 
23743 

28 

121 
34 

23740    203 
23742    O 

32308 
123 

23744 
2374* 
23743 

IB6 
201 

0      ■ 

23743    92 
23747    12 

9- 

23738 
3271 

23749 
23731 
23733 

1 
O 

88 

23730   0 
23732   O 
r 

1 
0 

23734 

128 

21 


48k  ZX  Spectrum 

To  celebrate  this  summer's  Olympic 
Games  in  Los  Angeles,  STORM 
SOFTWARE  offers  you  an  unique  "two 
program"  package.  Crammed  full  of 
facts  and  figures  -  OLYMPICS  '84  - 
gives  great  flexibility  in  looking  at  results. 

The  first  program  details  the  medal  winners,  by  country,  in  every 
current  Olympic  event  since  1896,  The  second  program  enables  you  to 
record  the  name  and  nationality  of  each  medal  winner  in  Los  Angeles, 
this  information  can  be  analysed  and  compared  with  the  full  result  in 
the  previous  two  Olympic  Games. 

OLYMPICS  '84  offers  many  extra  features: 

*  Bar-charts  to  compare  performances  over  the  years,  in  any  event, 
including  Men  versus  Women. 

*  Medal  tables,  for  any  Year,  Sport  or  Event. 

*  Ability  to  find  a  country's  best  sports  and  events. 

OLYMPICS  '84  package  includes  an  amusing  review  of  the  Summer 
Olympic  Games,  from  Athens  1896  to  a  preview  of  Los  Angeles  1984. 

This  attractive  package  includes: 

*  TWO  programs 

*  24pp  History  of  the  Olympic  Games, 
with  original  sketches 

*  Every  Summer  Olympics  since  1896 

*  A  MUST  for  all  sports  enthusiasts 

Available  from  all  good  computer  shops.  In  the 
event  of  difficulties,  order  direct  at  £14.95+50p 
P&P  (inc.  VAT).  Dealer  enquiries  welcome, 
contact:  Amanda  Ralph  on  0935  813528. 

Storm  Software 

Winchester  House 
Sherborne,  Dorset  DT9  4DL 


AMD 


the  two  programs  are  separate  and  I've 
just  pui  them  together  for 
convenience, 

STREAMLINED  SOFTWARE 

The  first  STREAMS  program  gives  a 
breakdown  of  the  3S  bytes  that  hold  the 
offset  addresses  for  attaching  the 
streams  to  channe  I  s .  Thi  s  off  set  n  umber 
is  at  I -important.  Stream  2,  for  example, 
is  for  the  normal  screen  display  and  a 
glance  at  the  second  printout  will  show 
thai  the  screen  channel  data  starts  at  the 
sixth  byte.  Surprise,  surprise,  the  offset 
number  for  the  second  stream  is  "6*.  If 
we  were  to  change  this,  for  example  to 
16.  then  Stream  2  would  address  the 
printer  channel.  In  effect  this  is  what 
you  were  doing  when  you  entered 
OPEN #2,  "P"  earlier  —  attaching 
Stream  2  to  the  printer  channel  Any- 
thing on  dial  stream  will  then  go  to  the 
primer.  From  here  you  can  see  that  to 
open  Stream  4  and  attach  it  to  Channel 
4,  address  2  35  82  in  the  stream  data  will 
have  to  carry  2 1 .  This,  when  added  to 
the  base  address  of  the  CHANS  area, 
will  give  you  the  first  byte  of  the  data 
related  to  Channel  4  —  in  our  case 
23754.  At  the  moment  this  is  holding 
128,  which  is  the  end  marker  byte  for 
the  CHANS  area. 

The  printout  alongside  shows  just 
how  much  can  be  stored  in  a  set-up  like 
this,  Of  the  five  bytes  allocated  to  each 
channel  the  first  two  are  the  address  of 
the  'Output'  routine,  the  next  two  the 
Input'  routine  and  the  last  byte  is  the 
specifier  Even  if  the  specifier  is  not  a 
true  description  of  what  the  channel  is, 
it'll  still  have  to  he  there.  Again  like  the 
streams  in  the  previous  paragraph,  in- 
serting your  own  address  is  far  more 
than  a  question  of  simply  POKEing, 
and  Pd  advise  you  to  take  great  care  you 
don't  overwrite  the  Spectrum's  own 
routines.  It  strikes  me  as  one  of  the 
annoying  quirks  that  channels  cannot 
be  extended  from  Basic,  Perhaps  Sin- 
clair Research  wanted  to  keep  down  the 
amount  of  access  that  the  average  user 
could  gain  of  outside  devices  —  a 

In  point  of  fact  more  than  one  routine 
is  needed  if  the  new  channel  is  to  be 
opened  and  used.  Besides  the  routine  to 
actually  link  the  new  stream  with  the 
new  channel  you  need  to  open  a  space 
lo  store  the  necessary  data  of  the  new 
chan  ne  I  The  re*  s  no  point  going  to  these 
lengths  if  there's  no  input4  or  'Output* 
rout  i  ne  to  be  add  re  ssed  —  w  i  thou  t  the  se 
the  path  to  wonderland  is  useless.  By 
next  month  I  hope  to  have  all  that  sor- 
ted, along  with  a  suitable  listing  for  you. 
But  for  those  getting  impatient,  here's  a 
brief  run  through  of  the  code  you  need  to 
do  the  job- 


ftcm 


First,  HL  and  BC  need  to  be  loaded 
w  j  th  the  ba  se  vaJ  ue  of  the  CHANS  vari  - 
able  and  the  offset  respectively.  With 
this  you  can  call  the  Spectrum's  own 
ROM  routine  CALL  1655  f  Hex)  This 
is  a k  make  room1  routine  and  nil  be  used 
to  create  the  extra  space  for  the  channel 
data.  Coming  out  of  this,  HL  is  holding 
the  address  of  the  start  of  the  new  space, 
.mdBC  the  end;  swop  them  around.  Use 
HL  10  load  in  the  various  values  you 
want  in  the  five  bytes  (remember  that 
you  start  with  the  specifier  at  the  highest 
address).    Lastly  comes  what's   pro- 


bably the  trickiest  part  of  the  job 
Although  you've  managed  to  set  up 
your  new  channel,  at  the  moment  it's  in 
limbo  with  no  stream  connecting  it.  It 
means  being  careful  not  to  lose  the 
offset  while  you  set  up  the  string.  The 
one  advantage  is  that  atleasi  it's  a  single 
byte  number,  and  the  best  hit  is  that, 
when  this  last  section  of  code  has  been 
completed,  that's  iu  you  can  now  open  a 
stream  to  your  new  channel.  Just  what 
the  new  channel  will  do  is  another  sub- 
ject —  or  perhaps  1  should  say,  other 
subjects.  Any  ideas? fls 


MORETUNING 

C  R  Hall  from  Mill  Hitlp  London  NW7 
has  written  about  the  '  Tuning-up'  arti- 
cle. He  says  it  works  fine,  and  goes  on 
to  disc  lose  a  piece  of  information  about 
the  BBC  Micro  (excuse  the  bad 
language)  showing  a  lOpF  capacitor 
wired  from  the  modulator  to  a  nearby 
resistor.  He  wants  to  know  if  the  same 
can  be  done  on  a  Speccv, 

The  answer  is  'yes',  though  the 
detail  is  different  Un  the  Spectrum 
you  need  a  200 ^F  capacitor  wired  be- 
tween the  case  of  the  output  socket  and 
the  earth  point  on  the  modulator.  The 
earth  point  is  the  wire  coming  out  of  the 
modulator  nearest  the  back  and  iden- 
tified by  the  brown  ceramic  lead  (see 
diagram). 


ntfTVfT 


+ 


iJII 


HUH 


lUttt 


iillC  IU! 

mPf  uwitii 


HAVOC 

[Egging around  sometime  ago,  1  came 
across  this  little  routine.  It's  rather  fun 
—  fun,  that  is,  if  you  get  kicks  from 


wrecking  the  displays  of  Spe  drums  in 
your  local  WH  Smiths,  or  causing 
GBH  to  migraine  suflerers. 
Enter  as  a  direct  command: 

CUM  B4000 

Follow  this  with  another  direct 
command: 

POKE  140  D  lit 

Nothing  spectacular  so  far,  but  a  line  ii 
needed.  Enter: 

111  CLOSE  #4 

and  then  RUN  it.  You  now  have  23.4 
seconds  of  blank  screen  in  which  to 
make  yourself  scarce 

There  seem  to  be  several  interesting 
oddities,  and  so  far  no  other  CLEAR 
number  I  have  found  works  -  though  I 
suspect  there  are  some  which  Tve  not 
had  a  chance  of  looking  into  at  the  time 
of  writing.  One  thing,  the  number 
PQKEd  into  64001  is  important 
I  which  caused  some  initial  surprise  I 
Other  numbers  you  could  use  are 
3.5*80  and  168.  though  1  was  amazed 
when  some  numbers  in  the  60s  failed  to 
work  and  j  ust  caused  a  complete  c  ra  s  h . 
minus  the  pretty  effects. 

Having  blatantly  pandered  to  the 
intellect  of  my  readers  already  this 
month,  1*11  not  insult  your  intelligence 
by  telling  you  the  common  factor  of 
these  values.  Nevertheless,  I  hope  to 
have  more  on  this  for  you  next  month, 
either  as  a  product  of  my  own  grey 
matter,  or  oi  yours 


Stsnff  back  $trr  O'Matf&ys  seffl  fas  Jtfrt  ftusssff  m  to  debug  jtf 


23 


RICHARD  SHEPHERD  SOFTWARE 


A  HOME  BUDGETING  &  BANKING  SYSTEM 
THAT  REALLY  MAKES  YOUR 
48K  SPECTRUM  WORK! 


i^ 


MICRODRIVE 

COMPATIBLE 


V 


f~C*< 


^  A  professional  style  itiulti  function 


Cash  Controller  program  that  can 
1  i     load  and  make  an  entry  in  just  90 
SECONDS  . . .  thanks  to  its  ZX 
MICRODRIVE  COMPATIBILITY.  If 
you're  not  ready  to  upgrade  to 
Microdrive  yet,  this  easy  to  use 
cassette  program  can  handle  up  to 
400  transactions  with  your 
Spectrum,  almost  filling  the  48K 
memory  of  your  computer. 


BANK  ACCOUNT 

•  Statements  on  demand  from  any 
date  to  date 

•  Molds  up  to  400  transactions 

•  Standing  order  facility 

•  All  tf ansae ti oris  can  be 
automatically  coded  to  alJocaceup  to 
1 6  Dudget  headings 

•  Search  facility  for  any  smqle  item 
by  description  or  amount 

HOME  BUDGETING 

•  1 6  Dudget  headings,  e  g  Gas, 
Rates.  Car,  fa*    you  can  choose  the 
headings 

•  Highlights  under  /over  spending 

•  Full  Dudget  expenditure 
breakdown 

•  Budget    re-think    facility 

LOAN    MORTGAG E 
CALCULATOR 

All  you  ever  wanted  to  know  but 
didn't  like  to  ask  f  Calculates 

•  Interest  rates 

•  Payback  periods 
Capital  sum 

•  Period  of  loan 

REMEMBER  THIS  CASSETTE 
CAN  ALSO  BE  USED 
WITH  ZX  MICRODRIVE 


PRINTOUT  FACILITY 
USING  ZX  PRINTER 

FULL  SECURITY  WITH 
PERSONAL  PASSWORD 

•   FULL  SAVE  PROGRAM 
ONTO  CASSETTE  OR 
MICRODRIVE 

Available  from  good  computer 
stores  or  direct  by  mail  order 
at  a  price  that  won't  upset 
the  Bank  Manager! 


£ 


irS 


£9.95 


V 


INC  P  &  P 

MICRODRIVE 

CARTRIDGE 

NOT  INCLUDED 


c 


De^ler  enquiries 

welcome. 

Gene r qui  discounts. 


^ 


FIRST  FOR 
MICRODRIVE 

DMfctr  •rtqu.r.e*  weiwmf  G*rwroui  discount! , 

l7j"M;i..j7MiF.iT.i~n 

I 

I 

I 


M  fc9  95  eatr  |  post  &  p,*cfr.nq  Povw 

ordm  r«kH  i  UN 

Math 

Addms 


y^prwfd  Soft'.". 

MU<Tt*f 


Credit  Card  Hotline  (06286|  63531 


I 
I 

MKHODA 


I  I  I  I  II  11  I  I  1  1 1  1 1  I  I 


NOT  INCLUDED 


RICHARD  SHEPHERD  SOFTWARE 

ELM  HOUSE,  23-25  ELJWSHOTT  LANE.  CIPPENHAM  SLOUGH.  BERKS      TEL  {06286)  6JS31 


The  second  project  i issue  2  of  YS}  in 
our  Spectrum  Control  series  set  a  par- 
Dculariy  difficult  problem  that  was  all 
about  using  the  Spectrum  as  an  elec- 
tronic organ,  The  nub  of  the  idea  was  to 
generate  a  note  whose  duration  varies  in 
re  tat  onto  the  length  ottimc  a  key  is  held 
down  The  standard  BEEP  routine  is 
not  suited  to  this  purpose,  because  it 
requires  the  duration  of  a  note  to  be 
specified  in  advance.  Arid  even  if  it  was 
possible  lo  overcome  this  hurdle,  how 
well  would  the  keyboard  scanning 
routine  perform? 

All  this  and  more  has  been  carefully 
considered  by  YS  reader,  Christopher 
Ashford,  who  sent  us  a  detailed  ex- 
planation of  his  method,  and  complete 
program  Listings  to  boot.  For  reasons 
explained  in  the  text  that  follows,  Mr 
i>rd  decided  the  on  ly  approach  was 
to  set  about  writing  his  own  routines. 
Exactly  how  he  did  this  and  also  how  he 
defined  the  problem,  are  all  clearly  ex- 
plained. We  also  get  some  meaty  Lips  on 
how  to  muck  around  with  the  program  to 
produce  some  interesting,  ii  not  altog^ 
ether  desirable*  results. 

PROBLEM  DEFINITION 

-V-  with  an>  programming  task,  the  first 
thing  to  do  is  define  the  problem  both  as 
simply  and  as  briefly  as  possible.  In  this 
case  we  need  the  loud s pe  akcr  to  be  t  u  med 
on  and  off  at  a  frequency  corresponding  to 
one  of  the  keys  —  for  as  long  as  that  key  is 
pressed  (see  the  Frequency  Tabiel 

Now,  looking  at  the  diagram  depicting 
the  piano,  we  can  see  how  the  Speccy's 
keys  represent  those  you'll  find  op  a  nor- 
mal piano  keyboard.  The  note,  in  order  to 
be  clean1,  must  have  an  equal  ratio  be- 
tween loudspeaker  ON  and  loudspeaker 
OFF;  ie.  a  one  to  one  mark/ space  ratio 
This  approach  is  best  illustrated  in  diag- 
ramatic  form,  showing  the  five  state*  of 
the  Spectrum  during  each  half- cycle 
period. 

MAKING  IT  HAPPEN 

.trying  the  length  of  stage  4,  ac- 
cording to  the  key  pressed,  each  half- 
cycle  time  can  be  con  trolled  exactly. 
Stages  1.2.3  and  5  must  all  he  executed 
within  the  half  cycle  time  of  the  highest 
10  as  to  properly  meet  the 
requirements  of  the  problem.  Knowing 
that  the  highest  frequency  required  is 


mmWEICT  TABLE 


III 


t 
I 

f 

T 
I 

I 
I 

■ 
J 
I 

L 

EITEI 


FflEQlHH 

26163 
27718 
293  66 
311  13 
329  63 
349  ?3 
369  99 
392  00 
415  30 
440  00 
46616 
493  88 
523  26 
554  38 
SB?  32 
62216 
659  26 


IITE 


C 
C 
0 
0 
E 
F 

G 
G 
A 
A 
B 
C 
C 
0 
D 
E 


SPECTRUM  CONTROL 


REVISITED 


YS  reader,  Christopher  Ashford,  claims  this  is  your  chance  to 
become  e  machine  code  musician.  Penny  Page  puts  it  to  the  test ,  *  # 


A5y.26Hz(— fmiLX)  and  the  speed  of  the 
Sped  rum's  dock  is  3 .5MHz(  =  rs),  we 
can  work  out  the  number  of  clock  cycles 
(T-statcsj  in  which  sections  1,2,3  and  5 
my  si  be  completed.  This  is  calculated 
as  follows: 

T-iUIti  =  ^IWIfltil 

=  >*i ! v  3.5  IIP 

Bin 

=  2654  T-ttitil 

However,  as  Z80  i  n  struct  ions  lake  bet- 
ween four  and  2  J  T-statcs  l depending  on 
the  instruction),  it's  quite  possible  to  run 
out  of  time.  With  this  in  mind,  it  Mimed  at 
first  to  be  worth  cons  id  c  ri  ng  the  KEY    S- 
CAN    and    BEEPER    ROM    routines 
Unfortunately,  KEY     SCAN  it  over 
long,  and  its  length  also  changes  when  two 
keys  are  pressed  simultaneously  —  which 
makes  iu  use  highly  undesirable.  Bearing 
in  mind  the  ease  with  which  a  more  effi 
cient  block  of  Assembler  code  could  be 
written  to  do  the  job,  KEY     SCAN  was 
soon  discarded. 
The  BEEPER  routine*  too.  has  an 


inherent  problem  which  render*  it  useless 
for  this  application.  The  minimum  dura 
lion  of  a  particular  note  is  one  whole 
cycle;  using  BEEPER  would  nesuh  in  a 
distorted  note,  since  the  mark'  space  ratio 
would  no  longer  be  one  to  one.  f  A  diagram 
is  provided  illustrating  the  distortion 
resulting  from  use  being  made  of  the 
til. I  PI  H  routine  \ 

CUSTOM  BEEP 

The  solution  lo  the  problem  iv  to  write  a 
customised  BEEP  routine,  and  this  must 
be  loaded  in  the  upper  32  K  of  RAM  (48K 
Spec  tr  urns  only)  Since  the  RAM  from 
4000io7FFFisusedbytheULAas^ili 
as  the  CPU.  and  also  because  of  the 
hardware  arbitration  for  access  to  this 
memory,  it's  impossible  to  precisely  de- 
fine a  timing  loop  in  this  area.  The  Assem 
hler  routines  in  this  solution  start  at  9000 
Hes,  and  the  memory  map  shown  gnes 
their  addresses  and  organisation 

Looking  at  our  memory  map.  we  can 
see  the  controlling  routine  —  ORGAN  - 
which  calls  NOTE  (in  which  KB  YIN  is 


A  graphic  raprauntatlon  af  ■  piano,  thawing  Iha  ralavant  fcayt  of  lha  apatlf  urn 
lo  iimuliU  it ■  operation 

25 


Our  Miftwifc  tv  %  unable  fan  u*e  In  the  b 

,  r  1  iut  dvl Jlh  u*  fit  All  HOC  Wfftl  pi  C**f  Ick  pi*  *r^  .!  VS I 

M.i.i      i 

wi*h  MkipjiL*  in  tin  n  of  our  Lcdrttifig  Si  fhr 

mm.  I  lite    Mnde)  I  rw 


flu*  wrflw  vc  n  itnlibc  br  t 

OS  HttitirtMc  Wmdi  fremiti 
SiMwu  WOKING  Sun**  Gill   I  ■:  I 

fhh  i  i 

t'AUPAC  INARMING  SEJUES  VOL  I 
i  A I  IP  AC  U- ARMING  StRII  S  \  I 
•  Al  IPAC   1  t  ARNINC,  SFRII  S  1  - 
l  AOPACl  Hi  MliTR^  M  HII  ^  VOL  I 

<,   StlPACCHEMlMKVSF  h 
CALIPACPATTlfBNS 


l^^+^S^tmr 

«Jt  SpvcQtfpn 
IfrKHUU 
l"SK  ZXII 


□  *§» 


lORKUklHl  KlsiuHMAlln^HJ  Ifl  •  *  M*Lmi COUKXN  lit l"tt 

NAME 

ADMStfl 

M  \  1 1  A&Ui  f ;  ROM  HM  V  STQRfc  *  &  St  1  *■  RII.K  *  t  S 


CYCLE 

LOUDSPEAKER 

n  u 

*                                       UNL 

OH  

OFF 

SPECTRUM 

1       2 

3 

4 

5 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

Tho  fi¥»  otatooof  Iho  Spoctrurn  during  ooch  Halt-cfcl*  ponDd 

1  ■  R*«#  h*yb«*rd  2.  Prac *■■  k« ybO*rd  intonnition  ],  S*|  up  »  liming  loop  4    [i«CUt« 
timing  loop  3,  Toggl*  loudtp*ak«  r  output 


ON 
LOUDSPEAKER 

—                  nuc  nvni  c                ^ 

Urr    — ■ 

3 

SPECTRUM 

4b 

5 

1 

2 

3 

4a      4b 

Th#  diilortion  *ip#ri*nt*d  wh*n  uii  it  mod*  of 
th*  SpoclrunV*  BEEPER  routjn*. 

♦  BEEPER* 

4a  =  4b 

k9100 

T-  STATES  TABLE 

90E3 

ORGAN  SUBROUTINE 

90B6 

BEEP  SUBROUTINE 

9058 

NOTE  SUBROUTINE 

902C 

KET  IN  SUBROUTINE 

9010 

VARIABLE  DATA  AREA 

9000 

BOB* 

Tho  momory  map  ihowJng  whin  fch« 
cuttomitBd  rotrtlna  4*  add™ tied 
^  4i  organised, 


ORGAN,  if  3  possible  t*>  load  a  test  value 
for  the  *  Q  -  key .  so  that  other  numbe  rs  ofT- 
states  can  be  played  around  with  if 
desired.  In  fact,  this  program  was  used  to 
tune  the  higher  frequencies  by  ear, 
because  although  the  number  of  T-stAtes 
that  were  required  for  stages  1 ,23  and  S 
were  worked  out  mathematically  (2509 ), 
something  must  have  gone  a  bit  wrong  — 
the  MtM  tended  to  sound  a  little  sharp. 
Eventually,  6 1  was  added  to  each  of  the 
five  highest  notes  to  make  them  sound  like 
octaves,  compared  with  the  five  lowest 
notes,  (It  was  only  necessary  to  alter  the 
higher  notes,  since  the  tower  the  frequen- 
cy; the  less  the  effect  of  an  error  in  the  tim- 
ing constant) 

Finally,  playing  about  with  the  code 
can  produce  some  interesting  eflfects.  For 
example,  you  could  try  RANDomizing 
USR  37047  and  listening  <o  the  effect* 
when  interrupts  are  not  disabled.  Alter- 
natively, try  relocating  the  code  to  within 


Th*  Boil£  program  uiid  tA  itciit 
|h#  M*x  c  ocf  d  shown  bolow,  Hllowinq 
uteri  to  t r ah » for m  tho  SpDctrurn 
into  a  m*i»n&  It*  y  board  proper1 

i   «?•  #*«■*»■*•■»**■■***•»■■■ 
7  mm      c.phjdwu  ~  i?.i.*4 

«  mm 

JO  Q_g 

10    PDTIHT    DP     19.101      life     J i     n.m**    ll'VQ* 


dm 


'PIAW.  IDP-CD5* 


feO  mm   »r  0,1*1    rim    ii'*t<v    iw- 
79  MtiNt    AT    l&.J,    riMN    li-pr«««   *^r   * 
ift1«f(4   ttfert- 

bo  ip  (booty****  nmm    do  ?o  bo 

|70  QJ 

fc«  fffl     Uferf.V 

lMi   Hfw   nmnifiQ   blu*       TM* 

«*t    wfeM    th*   hrdpr  pBtfD    »- 

*  lh*  nfc  ftVp  aft  .***»  m  ifw 

mmmt  raui  m* 

tBO  «n  *■- 

TOO  HMimill     ifBP>    1| 

ZIO  MfH  cUI    QP4M* 

270  PMH 

730  ■** 

300     IP»*U1      "WtW     t,rt    of      T     «l*t*fel      *|B 

•OO   tfT   fiign^lMT     4*^39*1 

900  LfT  iH^^MMfMaai 

*OQ   POlP/f    -nip*    Bpt*--l*l*ftp*lD-i   4*4**- 

ploai 

no  m*  mu*  i«  «  taut  ffli** 

n    i  l.,«   to  -  bo  i.i  th«  aaOPBBi 

In    111*  >     »m»    i«BI*   #«r    in* 

h*v    0;    lth»   tMf    **tJ. 

n»  pas  j^i.iw 

•DO   fVt     V^H.M^ 

4oo  bo   fa  WW 


Tit*  H#-  cod* 

h,  which  Bhouldi  bo 

*nt»r*d  Ml  9OO0  ttai 

440O  PP    WW 

PD 

WW  00  04  OQ 

oo 

DODO   DO   00 

OO 

Oo  oo  Oo  00 

oo 

»|0   71    OO 

«o 

01   ff  rm  IB 

PB 

*0l«  rr  71 

E3 

OB  IB    *m    ?r 

73 

PW  o*  v 

ID 

m  tt  is  cb 

08 

«eat  n  tm 

*T   C*   CD    10   DO 

04 

*0»  OO   ?■ 

n 

04    40   71    00 

m 

wua  1*  04 

IC 

Cfl    4*    £*    IB   D4 

VHO    D4    41 

fO 

PC   3.3    DO    IB  TO 

«*§■  r*  73 

10 

TO  «9  C4  7BJ 

» 

fOQD   04   *D 

c* 

tD    3-7    CB    W 

CD 

to«   ni  i  a 

Of 

*r   *P    00    71 

oa 

•0*0    WJ    fef 

04 

OO   DD  04  37 

BO 

*0*«  t •  cm 

ti 

n  Dl  ||  H 

m 

*>»    ^    CD 

w 

CI    3D    CI    3D 

CB 

•org  w    k: 

3D 

TO  PB   14    n 

T« 

DOBO   OD   31 

OH 

5D  to  ro  » 

PO 

DOBS    ID   rt 

M 

www  io 

Bi 

***>  f1!    ft 

09 

DO  CD  OO    BB 

01 

#OOD)   O0   DO 

IB 

CB   OO   33    IB 

CD 

•0*0  «14    W 

IO    CH    OO    00 

1* 

wwdi  eo  oo 

DO 

ID   DC    73    OO 

IB 

»»    DD     |» 

IB 

B9   00   OO  f  3 

ID 

•ODB    1*   W 

3JC 

DO   7|    13    40 

M 

•ODO   04   DO 

■7 

*F    Ofe    OO    DD 

di 

Wd    73    i* 

r* 

#1  yw  «4  cb 

9fl 

•ODO   DD    IB 

ff4 

V     H     C*    M 

IP 

*O0D    i«   er 

M 

IP    DB   H     pj 

IB 

•010   OB   PB 

cm 

DO   DO   C8   17 

00 

DOEB   n*    3t 

Dt    DO    OO    fl0    OB 

M 

«ve  io  m 

■DC 

FO   H  U  Of  At 

•Of »  07   pc  oo 

77  07  m   Ol 

OO 

D1O0   04    BE 

OB 

»  oi  di  or  oo 

•tOB    OO   BO  04 

«*«» 

OO 

**l*^    DO  «  00 

oo  00  oo  oo 

oo 

the  l\nit  16K  of  RAM  and  listen  Io  the 
"orrible  noises  thai  come  out  Perhiip  -Mm 
might  like  to  try  P<  IK  I  in^i  37006,23  and 

ii  what  happens  to  the  BORDFR 
if  you  dare!  It's  also  possible  to  have 
several  different  T -state  tables  and 
POKE  the  relevant  base  address  to  90BD 
(37053)  and  «)BE  f  37054 1  when 
required   B* 


nested),  and  this  updates  the  value  of  a 
pointer  —  the  value  of  which  depends  on 
the  key  bei ng  pre ssed.  Th i s  poi ntcr  i s  then 
used  to  access  the  relevant  entry  in  a  table 
of  T- st ales  required  for  each  note:  ihis 
number  of  T-states  is  passed  to  BEEP, 
which  executes  a  precise  timing  loop. 
ORGAN  can  be  called  from  Basic 
UMng: 

lit DDMfZE  USI  37046 

And  returns  to  Basic  if  Caps  Shift  and  the 
zero  key  are  pressed  simultaneously. 

With  the  Basic  program,  which  aut- 
omatically   toads   the    code    and   calls 


PROJECT 4 

An  editor^!  life  i  snot  a  happy  one.  .  at 
least  not  on  ihe  Speccy.  and  Penny 
Page  invites  you  to  improve  your 
editorial  skills. 

So«  it's  thinking  caps  on  and  heads 
down  for  another  chance  to  pn  ne  iha  t 
with  a  little  bit  of  help  from  its  friends, 
the  Speccy  is  the  most  versatile  micro 
this  side  of  Krypton. 

The  Spectrum's  editing  facility 
leave  a  lot  to  be  desired  —  long  lines  in 
Basic  can  take  an  age  to  correct  if  you 
can  only  go  backwards  and  forwards 
along  the  line.  ( If  you  press  the  kup*  or 
4down'  cursors  while  editing,  only  the 


'current  line  marker"  moves  —  leaving 
you  m  the  same  place') 

As  you  pcobahk  kn.  ■*  il  ,  ou've 
been  backed  inio  the  comer  of  your 
local  computer  club  by  a  Spectrum 
hater,  many  other  micros  have  the 
iity  to  edit  lines  by  flicking  ihc  cur 
■or  up,  downa  and  all  around.  And  so, 
without  further  ado.  tl  ur  task 

—  recreate  this  editing  feature  on  the 
Spe< 

All  efMriei  for  Project  4  should  be 
sent  10  our  Projects  Editor,  FVitJtj 
Pageai  Your  Spectrum,  14  Rmhtv 
Place,  London  WIP  IF>f 


27 


TASWORD  TWO 


THE  WORD  PROCESSOR  V^ 


64  CHARACTERS  PER  LINE  ON  THE  SCREEN  AND  TO  PRINTERS! 
MICRODRIVE  COMPATIBLE  —  instructions  supplied 


'The  number  of  or*  screen  prompts,  together  wtth  the 
MceNenr  manual    make  it  ideal   -   even   for  art  afrsofufe 

*f  ASONAL  COMPUTE  irVQfliDSiprtmlMf  rW 

'What  makes  a  wo:rf  processor  mors  or  ton  versatile  t&  its 
control  *e*iur es  Tisword  Two  offers  an  fmpfesm ve  sefecf  ron 
And  the  rufor  program  succeeds  in  demonstrating  them 
edrweOrV ' 

fifCTHONtcsAfit&cGtmrrjHG  *a%*mr**r  rsm 

"Tasword  is  showing  #  degree  of  $ophi$ttcanon  that  tusmess 
computers  look  many  years  to  develop  ' 

WHATMCAQtQvtfm  iiW 


TASWORD  TWO  The  Word  Processor* 

Your  Spectrum  become*  a  professional  word  processor 
with  TASWORD  TWO  TASWORD  TWO  gives  you  an  ami? ing 
64  character!  per  line  on  your  screen  This  is  >rieat  for  standard 
A4  paper  and  TASWORD  TWO  prims  your  teicl  |ust  as  it 
appears  on  your  screen 
Tasword  Two  drtv&s  the  following  interfaces; 
Cohre  RS232 1 0  Port  ADS  interface 

Euroeiectrontcs  tnterfece  KempstOn  interface 

Hifdartoay  interface  More*  interfere 

Sintieir  ZX  interface  1  Tasrnart  interface 

The  same  program  drives  these  interfaces.  A  short  easy  To  fol- 
low set  of  mstrucTtonM  lakes  you  through  setting  up  your  TaS' 
word  Two  to  drive  the  interface  you  have  or  choose  to  buy. 
Tasword  Two  also  drives  the  ZX  printer 

Tasword  Two  is  readily  adapted  for  (he  mic  rod  rives  to  give 
super  last  saving  and  loading  of  both  program  arid  lent  The 
mrcrotfnva  instructions  are  supplied  with  the  Tasword  Two 
manual 


£13 "90  Cully  inclusive  mailorder  prfce 


TASWORD  TWO  TUTOR 

T  AS  WORD  TWO  comes  complete  with  a  many  a  \  and  a 
cassetur  The  eassetle  contains  your  TASWORD  TWO  end 
TASWORD  TWO  TUTOR  This  leaches  you  word  processing 
using  TASWORD  TWO  Whether  you  have  serious  applications 
or  simply  want  to  learn  about  word  processing*  TASWORD 
TWO  and  TASWORD  TWO  TUTOR  make  it  easy  and  enjoyable 


TASWORD  TWO  £2  Demonstration  Cassette 

See  for  yourself  ihe  powerful  features  ot  TASWORD  TWO 
Send  just  €2  for  the  Tasword  Two  demonstration  cassette  A 
voucher  ts  included  which  gives  you  CI  off  the  price  of 
TASWORD  TWO 

All  prices  include  VAT  md  post  tnd  packaging 

*  Availibli  from  larger  branch**  of  Boon 

For  furl  her  rnformation  on  all  these  products  send  an  see 
with  'Tasmen  Brochure'  written  on  the  flap. 


Sand  cttaqur  P  O.  or  Accm*  number  vmih  order 
honi  Ac cast  coders  l#»di  (06321  438301 


TASPRINT 

A  must  for  dot  matrix  printer  owners!  Prim  your  prognrn 
output  and  listings  in  a  choice  of  Uve  impressive  print  Styles. 
Drives  all  the  printer  interfaces  listed  under  Tasword  Two  and 
all  dot  main*  printers  with  bit  image  graphics  capahiMies 
You  can  also  us*  TASPRINT  to  print  Tasword  Two  text  f 
T  ASPRiN  T  gives  your  output  originality  and  styla  '  Send  See. 
for  brochure  which  includes  TASPRINT  oulput 

£9.90  fully  inclusive  mall  order  price 

TASWIDE  -  64  characters  per  line' 

A  machme  code  utility  program,  TASWiOt  doublet  the 
information  that  your  own  programs  can  display.  Make  0 
simple  change  to  your  print  statements  and  your  output 
appears  on  the  screen  at  64  characters  per  tine  instead  of  the 
normal  32.  Both  print  sizes  can  be  mixed  on  the  screen  16K 
and  49K  versions  supplied  on  the  same  cassette 

£5 '50  fully  inclusive  mall  order  price 


TASMATH  1 

Mathematics  education  Three  programs  on  one  cassette 
TA5IMEQ  -  simultaneous  aquations 
TASQUAD  -  quadratic  egupiions 
T AS  TRIG  -  trigonometry  of  right  angled  triangles 
Available  for  the  16K  and  4SK  Spectrum  and  lor  the  BBC 
model  B 

£5.95  fully  inclusive  mail  order  price 

TASMAN  PARALLEL  PRINTER  INTERFACE 

Plug  into  your  Spectrum  anddnve  any  primer  fitted  wilh  the 
Centronics  standard  parallel  interface.  Supplied  complete 
with  ribbon  cable  and  driving  software.  The  cassette  includes 
LUST.  L PRINT,  and  tent  screen  copy  software  for  ell 
Centronics  printers  The  user  changeable  mierfaca  software 
makes  it  easy  to  send  control  codes  to  your  printer  using  Ihe 
method  so  successfully  pioneered  with  Tasword  Two.  The 
cassette  also  contain*  fast  machine  code  high  resolution 
screen  copy  software  for  Epson,  Star,  Sericoshtf.  Shmwa,  and 
Tandy  Colour  Graphic  fin  colour  Fi  primers  Send  s  <i  e  for 
brochure  wi  iides  sample  prim  outs  and  a  full  1 

printers  supported  by   screen  software    Compatible  with 
microdrives  ZX  Interface  1 

£45  fully  inclusive  mail  order  price 

TASMAN  RS232  PRINTER  INTERFACE 

Specification  and  software  as  above  but  drives  | 
fitted  wilh  the  RS232  standard  interface  A  low  cost  route  to 
printing  -  especially  suitable  for  use  with  the  Tandy  Colour 
Graphic  printer  and  the  Brother  portable  typewriter  prmters 
Supplied  complete  with  cable  -  please  specify  whether  4  pm 
DIN  or  25  way  D  pkjg  required. 

£38  fully  inclusive  mail  order  price 


TASMAN  SOFTWARE 

D*pt  rs 

SPRINGFIELD  HOUSE 

HYDE  TERRACE.  LEEDS  LS2  9LN 


MR    HMEffEVI    Mr: 

LUCK  OF  THE 


Discussing  the  artistic  potential  of  various  micro  add-ons, 
Henry  Budget!  concentrates  his  critical  powers  on  British 

Micro's  Graf  pad. 


One  of  the  most  powerful  selling  points 
of  any  of  today's  home  computers  must 
he  i he  type  of  graphics  facilities  they 
have  to  offer.  With  just  a  few  simple 
tines  of  Basic,  great  sweeping  designs 
can  be  made  lu  appear  and  disappear,  , 
colours  change,  new  patterns  emerge. 
Unfortunately,  for  the  really  creative 
user,  all  this  requires  expert  program- 


ming knowledge.  The  concept  can't  be 
created  on  paper  first  and  then  Loaded 
into  the  computer  as  a  completed  work 
of  an.  While  there  are  a  number  of  on- 
screen drawing  programs  which  allow 
the  creation  and  manipulation  of  an 
image,  they  cannot  be  used  to  copy  a 
picture  from  a  sheet  of  paper. 

Designers,    technical   draughtsmen 


and  architects,  as  well  as  Interior 
decorators,  landscape  gardeners  and 
fashion  designers  |to  name  hut  a  few) 
can  all  benefit  from  the  facilities  that  a 
computer  graphics  system  can  provide 
Once  the  design  is  ^ntc  l>  stored  away  on 
tape  or  disk,  it  can  be  quickly  loaded 
back  into  the  computer's  memory 
Now,  additions  and  alterations  can  be 
tried  without  wasting  valuable  raw 
materials  or  creating  a  product  that  isn't 
quite  what  the  customer  expected.  Yet 
all  these  potential  users  of  computer 
systems  are  limited  by  the  fact  that  the 
computer  cannot  be  interfaced  to  a 
piece  of  paper! 


TABLETS  IN  THEORY 

So  what's  needed  is  an  input  deuce 
which  can  translate  the  lines  and  curve* 
of  the  drawing  or  design  into  digital 
information  that  a  computer  can  then 
recreate  as  a  display,  I  n  the  professional 
computer  market  graphics  tablets  have 
been  around  for  almost  M  long  as  com- 
puters, but  low -cost  designs  for  the 
home  user  have  only  recently  started  to 
become  tl  ailahle.  High  precision 
graphics  tablets,  also  known  as  digit 
isers  because  they  reduce  analogue 
shapes  to  digital  information,  use  a  wide 
variety  of  techniques  to  produce  the 
required  information.  Among  the  rnoM 
accurate  are  the  magnetic  and  capaei- 
tivc  systems;  a  capacitive  system  can 
offer  accuracies  ■  i    1 00th  of 

an  inch  —  sufficient  for  engineers  and 
draughtsmen  —  while  the  magnetic 
method  is  potentially  even  better, 

The  cheapest  and  simplest  digitisers 
are  the  various  pantographs.  Based  on 
the  same  principle  as  the  old-fashioned 
drawing  aid.  they  use  jointed  arms  and 
co-ordinate  geometry  to  give  a  direct 
measure  of  the  position  of  the  stylus 
Variable  resistors  (potentiometers)  are 
mounted  at  the  two  joints  that  provide  a 
varying  voltage  to  the  computer.  This 
can  he  interfaced  through  a  suitable 
analogue  port ;  a  joystick  socket  may  be 
enough,  given  suitable  software,  The 
resolution  of  the  pantograph  is  limited 
by  the  accuracy  of  both  tht-  finable 
resistors  and  the  mechanical  linkages; 
typically  it's  around  five  percent.  How- 
ever, sophisticated  pantographs  based 
vm  optical  measurement  of  the  rotation 
of  the  joints  can  otter  much  better 
results,  although  they  still  fall  short  of 
the  snrt  of  accuracies  that  can  be  pulled 
from  the  best  systems.  While  the  pan- 
tograph ss  probably  the  simplest  type  of 
digi  riser  there  is.  it's  often  quite  ade- 
quate for  home  computer  use. 

PUTTING  THE 
PRESSURE  ON 

One  stage  more  advanced  than  the  pan 
tograph  ( though  still  lacking  the  sophis- 
1 1 cation  of  a  magnetic  of  tCobftk 
digitizer  J  is  the  pressure  sensitive  digit 
Lser  Often  referred  to  as  a  *bit  pad' 
(although  that's  actually  the  trade  name 
of  a  specific  device)  it  can  take  one  of 
two  forms.  The  simpler  of  the  two  is 
based  on  a  resistive  sheet,  often  just 


MLR     MUfffEYI    Wl 

LUCK  OF  THE 

DRA\A/ 


heavy  paper  with  a  graphite  cot  ling.  If 
an  AC  voltage  is  passed  across  the 
sheet,  a  stylus  will  be  able  to  detect  the 
potential  at  any  point.  Using  an  elec- 
tronic s  am  pt  i  ng  met  hod  w  hie  h  is  Locked 
to  the  same  frequency  as  the  supply 
voltage,  it's  possible  to  derive  a  direct 
relationship  between  the  voltage  detec- 


magnetic  or  capacitive  effects.  Both 
systems  rely  on  a  series  of  wire  grids 
embedded  in  ihe  baseboard  of  the  tab- 
let, tn  the  magnetic  system  the  grids  are 
used  to  detect  the  position  of  the  stylus 
which,  in  this  case,  is  a  coil  radiating  a 
pulsed  high  frequency  signal  The  sig- 
nal detected  by  the  grids  is  compared 
with  a  reference  signal  and  provides  a 
direct  measure  of  the  x,y  position  of  the 
stylus.  The  capacitive  system  works  the 
other  way  round  in  that  the  stylus  is  used 
to  detect  a  series  of  coded  pulses  fed  into 
a  two-layer  grid. 

The  data  produced  by  a  graphics 
tablet  must  be  converted  into  infor- 
mation suitable  for  display  on  the  screen 
and,  to  this  end,  mosn  it  "the  commercial 
products  come  with  alt  the  necessary 


F*f  m  night  OIH  th*  town,  why  not  dresi 
your*#»  up  with  a  Grafpad?  Firm!,  It1  ft  on 
with  the  red  bow  tie  .  .  . 


.  .  .  *nd  thtn  ih«  whil*  thtrt  i*  tricky  itam 
to  draw,  **p*c  tally  with  lha  Graf  pad  '* 
'eHmappaarfng  Curio r1  feature). 


Be  careful  when  adding  colour  —  ft  you 
poiitiftn  the  yellow  d otm  to-a  ntir  the  bow 
fie,  they'll  come  out  red  in&t end, 

ted  and  the  position  of  the  stylus  on 
the  sheet. 

The  second  type  of  pressure  sensitive 
digitise r  uses  two  sheets  of  resistive 
material  separated  by  a  cellular  mem- 
brane. The  pressure  of  the  stylus  causes 
the  two  conductive  surfaces  to  make 
contact,  a  principle  that  was  used  in  the 
Sinclair  Research  ZX8!  keyboard-  A 
high  frequency  signal  is  fed  into  the  two 
layers,  each  signal  {normally)  either 
opposite  in  phase  or  connected  at  right 
angles  to  the  other.  The  signal  detected 
by  the  sty  lus  when  it  makes  an  electrical 
connection  between  the  two  sheets  pro 
vides  a  measure  of  its  position.  Typical 
problems  encountered  with  both  these 
systems  include  changes  in  the  surface 
resistance  due  to  damage,  or  the 
pressure  of  a  hand  at  another  point  on 
the  surface. 

The  best  types  of  digitiser  available 
to  the  home  user  are  based  on  either 


On*  la*t  touch,  blue  itripoion  the  mrurt 
-noWi  where'i  my  lop  hat  and  laMiT 


software.  However,  just  entering  the 
data  isn't  the  end  of  the  graphics  tablet's 
usefulness.  Once  the  information  is 
stored  in  the  computer  the  tablet  can  be 
used  as  an  editing  tool,  allowing  colour 
to  be  added  or  changed  and  shapes  to  be 
modified.  The  surface  of  the  tablet  can 
also  be  programmed  to  act  as  a  menu 
that  selects  standard  options  from  the 
program,  so  that  the  keyboard  need  only 
be  used  for  selecting  major  functions  or 
entering  text, 

PICTURE  THIS..* 

So  much  for  theory  —  let's  look  now  at  a 
version  for  the  Spectrum  user.  One  such 
device  called  the  Grafpad  system  from 
British  Micro  (previously  only  offered 
for  the  BBC  Micro)  has  recently  been 
adapted  to  work  with  the  Spectrum  and 
Commodore  64  systems,  The  unit 
comes  extremely  well-packed  in  poly- 


styrene —  not  a  bad  thing  considering  it 
costs  a fai rl y  staggering £143.75  —  and 
consists  mainly  of  a  25mm  by  355mm 
by  260mm  black  plastic  box.  Already 
that's  a  "slight*  discrepancy  from  the 
advertising  blurb.  .  „  they  reckon  ifi 
only  55mm  wide  but  what's  a  simple 
misprint  between  friends?  Well,  no- 
thing really,  except  that  they  also  rec- 
kon it  comes  with  a  light  pen  and  .  it 
doesn't.  But  then  it  does  have  a  really 
nice  stylus  to  make  up  for  it! 

Also  included  in  the  packing  is  a 
multi-way  cable  to  link  the  tablet  to  the 
Spectrum's  edge  connector,  a  cassette 
containing  the  software,  a  keyboard 
overlay  and  a  wad  of  A5 -silted  ph<  i 
copied  paperthat  claims  to  be  a  manual. 
The  tablet  is  well-made  and  its  surface 
is  ruled  with  a  grid  corresponding  to  the 
Spectrum's  graphics  resolution  of  I  76 
by  256  pixels;  it  also  includes  a  3  2 -box 
menu  panel  which  can,  in  theory  at 
least,  be  utilised  by  users  to  create  their 
own  software.  The  grid  is  protected 
from  damage  by  a  sheet  of  clear  acrylic 
over  which  the  stylus  can  be  moved  with 
ease  —  although  it  does  scratch. 

The  first  move  is  to  connect  the  tablet 
to  the  Spectrum  —  an  easy  task  you 
might  think,  that  simply  involves  plug- 
ging a  cable  between  the  Spectrum's 
edge  connector  and  an  identical  con- 
nector on  the  tablet?  No  such  luck!  On 
my  Spectrum  at  least,  the  aluminium 
heats  ink  prevented  the  plug  from  being 
properly  inserted.  Out  with  the  toolkit T 
some  minor  surgery  and  the  cable  now 
connects  perfectly  —  although  it's  still 
too  short  to  allow  the  tablet  to  go  any- 
where other  than  on  the  right  .or  directly 
behind  the  Spectrum,  That's  fine  it 
you're  right-handed,  but  then,  not 
everyone  is. 

With  the  cable  connected  all  that 
remains  is  to  plug  the  sty  lus  mto  the  soc- 
ket at  the  side  of  the  tablet,  load  the  pro- 
gram and  start  drawing.  To  make  life 
easier  for  l  he  user,  a  key  board  overlay  is 
supplied  which  carries  the  various  op- 
tions.  Alt  of  the  Spectrum  keys  arc  used 
by  the  program  —  most  with  two  func- 
tions, a  fact  that  is  fairly  strange  given 
ihe  presence  of  the  menu  panel  on  the 
tablet.  To  keep  the  user  aware  of  what's 
going  on,  the  screen  display  includes  a 
highlighted  bar  detailing  the  current 
screen  mode,  foreground  and  back- 
ground colour  selected,  and  the  drawing 
and  dot  modes,  A  neat  feature  is  that  the 
bar  always  moves  out  of  the  way  when 
you  get  near  it,  hopping  from  the  top  lo 
the   bottom  of  the  screen   and   vice 

To  activate  the  stylus,  you  press 
down  on  the  lip  and  a  micros  witch 
makes  contact,  the  on-screen  cursor 
then  follows  the  motions  of  the  stylus 
around  the  grid.  To  use  any  selected 
function,  press  the  Enter  key  and  the 
function  will  operate  as  long  as  the 
stylus  is  depressed;  releasing  it  cancels 
the  function. 

DRAWING  ON 
EXPERIENCE 

The  single  most  difficult  thing  I  round 
when  using  the  Grafpad  was  to  re  mem 


30 


campbell  systems  for  spectrum  48k 

Can  YOUR  Database 
Handle  This? 


U2*» 


""■"•74, 

ur>  u,  ,-■■  'tut  * 

PROFESSION  \l    llll    MA\.\(,I  Ml  M,  DAI  A  RETRIEVAL  AND  PRI  M  Nl  VI  IO.n 
ANA    ADDRESS  LISTS.  INVENTORY.  CT'STOMI-R  OR  PERSONNEL  RECORDS... 


IMASTERFILE  can! 


Microdrive  com m;i nds  included;  32.  42  or  51 
characters  per  tine!;  26  fields  per  record; 
Unrestricted  number  of  records;  36  user  defined 
Display/Print  formats;  \  ;isi  search  <v.  sort  facilities; 
Around  32K  of  RAM  available  for  data! 


NOW  with  IMF-PRINT  and  MASTERFILE  version 09, 


you  can  format  your  data  lor  a  full  width  printer! 

Works  with  ntOftl  popuLir  printer  interfaces  t  ully  variable  report  wiJihs  (over  MX)  columns*  and 
lengths  Powerful  numeric  editing  and  column  totals.  Almost  no  reduction  in  spate  available  for 
data.  Many  more  products  available  Send  5  M  for  details! 

MASTERFILE  version  09  £15.00 

MF-PRINT  E  6.95 


nn  huh   J  I 

Cdhiph<..air  S 
CDvpl.  YS1  15   Rim*  Kodri.  RuuMturM  Hill 

MAS1LRFILE  with  MF-PRINT    tl9>X>        i  t«BLEnfiwdoisM<»$w 


cs 


SIMPLY  THE  BEST     spECtrum  users 


Remove 
5  screws 

Separate 
Spectrum 

Remove  tails 

Screw  Spectrum 
to  base 

Insert  keyboard 
tails 

Screw  keyboard 
to  base 

Secure 

Housing 

Facia 


SCREWDRIVER 
+ 
5  MINUTES 


iAGAI 


EMPEROR 


ft 


*  F*f  m+  nc*  «**■*!  *ti**f*d  win  aat 
Gf  <m  s3-™>bih  (Htait  t*twf!  ami  »*  wrf' 
■*ftrtd  vuw  i^oftai  and 

AMHirti  MW-kdP  Ml 


The  ZX  Spectrum  is  the 
best  Homecomputec  lor 
Soft  ware ,  both  ed  ucat  i  ona  I 
and  games. The  mam 
flaw,  is  of  course,  the 
keyboard,  This  classic 
keyboard  housing  is 
designed  to 
accomodate  the 
Spectrum  personal 
computer, 
A  professional  lull  size 
'Qwerty1  keyboard  has  been 
designed,  with  full  travel  keys  &  a  full 
Size  space  bar. Special  (unctions  are 
strategically  placed  for  rapid  programming  & 
ease  or  use  designed  today  for  users  of 
tomorrow,  you  can  play  the  fastest  games 
with  the  greatest  of  ease.  It's  easy  to 
assemble  too  —  you  need  1  screwdriver  4 
Sminutes  — Simple!  Available  in  white. 

SAGA  SYSTEMS  LTD 

WOODHAM  RO.  WOKING ,  SURREY  TEL  69527 


try  our  NEW  SOUND  BOOST  Spec7rum 

Sound  volume  adjustable  from  a  whisper  to  a 
roar  providing  sound  and  vision  for  added  realism. 
No  memory  used P  pushes  the  sound  out  through 
the  TV.  No  soldering  required,  just  3    pft  -  A    p^  p 
easy  push  on  connections.  L y ,5U  free 


PLEASE  RUSH  ME  WITHOUT  DELAY 

t  ENCLOSE  CHEQOE/PO  PAYABLE  TO  SAGA  SYSTEMS  LTD 

FOR  C PLEASE  ADO  El.  15  PIP  PE«  KEYBOARD 

PA  P  FftEE  FOR  BEEP  BOOST 

NAME i 

ADDRESS POSTCODE  j 


LUCK  OF  THE 

DRAW 


her  whether  I  was  drawing  on  the  screen 
or  mapping  the  attributes.  The  current 
screen  mode  is  displayed  in  the  centre  of 
the  information  harH  m>  it  should  be  sim- 
ple to  keep  track  of  whaf  s  going  on; 
however,  dropping  into  Attribute  mode 
and  spraying  colour  across  pixel  boun- 
daries can  be  very  frustrating-  The 
accuracy  of  the  tablet  is  properly 
matched  to  the  Spectrum  —  the  grid 
inside  the  tablet's  surface  consisting  of  a 
wire  mesh  1 76  by  256;  the  movement  of 
the  stylus  on  the  screen  corresponds 
exactly  to  its  motion  on  the  surface  of 
the  Gralpad.  Don't  expect  too  much  at 
once  because  drawing  freehand  re- 
uires  practice  and  traced  pictures  are 
never  really  exact, 

Fortunately  the  software  makes  al- 
lowances for  litis  and  it's  generally  qu 
ker  to  k  nock  up  an  appro  x  i  mate  liken  ess 
and  then  use  the  editing  features  to  tidy 
up.  Of  these  the  most  useful  is  Magnify 
which  blows  up  the  selected  area  by  up 
to  eight  times.  Here  the  individual  pix- 
els are  about  the  size  of  characters  and 


you  can  Set  and  Reset  them  at  will.  The 
movement  of  the  stylus  is  also  scaled  to 
the  current  magnification,  so  the  picture 
doesn't  leap  about  all  over  the  place. 

Among  the  other  built-in  features  of 
note  are  the  Line.  C  ircle  and  Box  draw- 
ing routines,  all  rubber  banded  from 
any  given  starting  pun!  Quite  what  the 
Vertical  and  Horizontal  line  facilities 
are  for  is  a  mystery;  they  appear  com- 
pletely redundant,  While  almost  all  the 
routines  work  very  fast  indeed.  theCir 
cle  is  amazingly  slow;  any  suggestions 
as  lo  why  would  be  gratefully  received 

there  seems  to  be  no  obvious  answer. 
To  assist  in  matching  your  image  to 
others  the  program  provides  two  scaling 
grids,  bui  neither  really  proved  very 
effective .  The  highlight  grid  which  pro- 
duces alternate  light  and  dark  back- 
ground character  cells  doesn't  work 
with  dark  backgrounds  and  while  the 
second  grid  is  better,  it  reduces  all  the 
colours  to  magenta  or  white,  making  it 
almost  useless  for  anything  other  than 
outlining. 

Against  these  dubious  features  Graf- 
pad  does  possess  several  very  u&efu] 
facilities,  You  can  invert  an  image,  flip 
up/down  or  left/ right,  and  store  up  to 
two  pictures  .either  elsewhere  in  memory 
or  permanently  on  tape  \ ;  can  be 
pain  ted -in  or  you  can  edit  the  Attribute 
screen  on  a  pixel- by-pixel  basis  (in 
Magnified  mode  if  you  really  want  to  be 
accurate)  If  you  want  to  protect  areas 
of  your  picture  from  accidental  damage, 
a  window  facility  is  provided  and  only 


the  area  inside  can  be  edited  while  the 
window  is  active  About  the  only  other 
interesting  facility  promised  by  the 
manual  is  thai  you  can  pick  up  UDGs. 
but  it  fails  to  suggest  from  where! 

The  manual  actually  fails  to  mention 
quite  a  lot  and  I  only  hope  that  the  one  I 
got  is  a  prototype  and  not  what  the  pay- 
ing public  will  receive!  Quite  apart  from 
the  mis  spellings  and  shabby  presenta- 
tion it  hardly  tells  you  anything  at  all 
It's  almost  as  though  it  was  translated 
from  Esperanto  by  an  artificial  miclli 
gence  program  suffering  from  dyslexia, 
(Author's  note:  all  spelling  mistakes  in 
this  review  are  the  responsibility  of  the 
editor!  [No  they're  not.  Ed  \)  All  the 
commands  are  dealt  with  but  seem- 
ingly in  as  few  words  as  possible  —  if  s 
more  a  quick  reference  guide  than  a 
piece  of  documentation. 

GET  THE  PICTURE? 

If  you  want  to  create  works  of  ait  on 
your  Spectrum's  screen  then  you  can 
certainly  do  it  with  the  Grafpad.  But 
then  again  you  can  also  do  it  with  the 
various  screen-based  editors  Like 
Melbourne  Draw  for  substantially  less 
than  £  1 43/75,  The  only  thing  the  Graf- 
pad  has  to  offer  that  the  screen-based 
packages  don't  if  the  facility  to  use  the 
pen  in  trace  an  existing  drawing  on 
paper  into  the  computers  memory: 
even  this  is  limited  by  the  accuracy  of 
the  tablet.  Check  it  out  yourself  and 
draw  your  own  cone  I  u  s  ions        O  * 


The  Key  to  Spectrum  Machine  Code  Success. 

Picturesque  s  machine  CODE  System  is  used  and  recommended  by  prof  ess  lonai  software  writers,  yet  the  excellent 
documentation  and  the  friendly  easy-to-use  programs  have  been  highly  recommended  for  beginners 

You  will ontybuyone  Machine  Co^^ 


NEW  IMPROVED  PROGRAMS  —  MICRODRIVE  COMPATIBLE 


assort*1** 


ASSEMBLER 

Completely  self  contained 
with  its  own  line  editor  giving 
an  easy  to-read  jo  column 
tabulated  listing  Auto  line 
numbering,  line  renumbering 
and  auto  tabulation  make  this 
one  of  the  fastest  and  easiest 
Assemblers  to  use  5 
character  label  names 
Decimal  wen  or  ascii 
constants  save  load 
VERIFY  both  the  listing  and 
Machine  Code  to  cassette/ 

MlCRODRl  VE  t  U  ETWORK 

Assemble  from  cassette  or 
Microdrive  Jnro  memory  for  very 
large  programs  Customise  to  most  Centronics 
printer  interfaces,  or  RS232  iwith  interface  V  for  30 column 
printout  fast  ASSEMBLY  -  1k  of  code  in  7  seconds 
Assembler  Directives ..-  ORG  end  defb  oefw  DEFM,  eou, 
OEFL  (M)CfOdnve  and  Centronics  Facilities 
only  operate  with  48k  machines  i 


ssw    *** 


£8.50 


*CL  VAT1P4P 

*W***  MMtffcMI  o*  >  iwri  lr  *ttfl  AfpEtfrt to  Wf  onto  Ife  <•  w**  *  *tp >o«»  noi  l^jgifj  i 


I rAtmq yynm t wvbu* im  fw  anagrantj  by m*nm m* mtHfal  Mil  tottctwmiut  Sam **m j tt*m*> m  fot 


MONITOR 

The  tdeai  tool  to  help  the 
beginner  get  started,  yet  it 
contains  all  the  commands  for 
the  experienced  programmer 
to  run  and  de-Dug  machine 
code  programs  inspect  and 
alter  memory  contents  in 
Hex  or  ascii  Breakpoints  and 
f  u»  Register  display  NOW 

WITH  SINGLE  STEPPING 

through  Bam  or  ROM 
Disassemble  any  part  of 
memory  ctam  or  ROM  Dec- 
Hex -Dec  number  converter 
Printer  output  to  za 
printer  or  via  RS232  (with 
rnterf  ace  11  or  customise  to 
most  Centronics  printer  interfaces  General  memory 
management  commands  include  Hex  dump  insert 
Delete,  Fill  and  Move  can  reside  in  memory  with  the 
Assembler  i4SK  machines  only]  to  give  a  complete 
uacrt i  n  •  Code  p  rog  ramm  i  ng  system      O  *7    C  ^1 

NCL  VATAPJIP 

lUKtttJtH 


Available  from  tire  spectrum  chain  of  stores,  branches  of  John  Menkes  and  all  good  computer 

shoos,  or  by  mail  order  by  sending  cheque  -TO  to 
PICTURESQUE,  6 Corkscrew  Hifl  west  WickMam  Kem  0RJ9BB  Send  SAE  for  details 


IURES0UE 


32 


Calling  all  Spectrum  owners ,  .  .  if  you've  missed  out  it  the  news- 
agents, don'i  frei  "cause  wcYc  still  p>i  a  few  issue*  left  over. 
Deep  in  the  basement  erf  Rathbont  Place,  our  lovable  layabout 
Distribution  man,  Trevor,  Stubbed  his  toe  on  some  misplaced 
packages  full  of  .  would  you  believe  ii  .  .  .  back  issues  of 
Y&ur  Spectrum 

Well,  we  wouldn't  w  zint  i<  >  ^ct  the  pcx^r  guy  in  trouble  for  inn 
selling  them*  so  we"  re  offering  ytiu  the  chunce  to  help  out.  Check 
out  the  coupon  at  the  hot  i  om  <  if  the  page  a  nd  send  i  t  offq  u  ick  ly  — 
there's  not  that  many  left,  and  we'd  hale  you  noi  to  complete  your 
collection 


For  all  this  and  more  —  news  and  views.  Tun  and 

philosophy,  charts  and  chat,  books  and  letters. 
rumours  and  reviews  —  look  no  further  than  the 
gresili st  Spectrum  magazine  around  —  Your 
Spea  rum 

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■i 

|  Please  sand  me  Ihe  following  back  issues  of  Your 
|  Spectrum  (£M  0 each,  includes  handling). 

5  iQuanWy) 

■  Issue  1  D 
Jrssue2  D 
'issue  3  D 

I  Issue 4  D 

■  I  enclose  a  cheque/postal  order  for  c 
■  Nam* 

!  Addr 


Postcode 


Please  fill  in  the  order  form  (cheques/postal  orders 
made  out  to  Your  Spec trum land  mail  it  immediately 
to  Your  Spectrum,  Bachiuuea,  14Rathbone 
Mace,  London  W1  p  1 0E. 


F  utwpjr  toA  WQ 

EnQrantniw  — 

no  faudon'1 

<WKto10f*!iic 

mid  enrol* 

mapa/m* 


gpmthrrr 

fTOQUJbfe  —  1 

«ay  to  treat  qui 

el  fiattina  code 

topi 


BwW  i  kevt»Oif  d 

oultflt  tout* 
StcttYinWllie 

m 


DwltttMbi 

ItWt  I! j»k  Mr 
cfej      andio 


FMihef  a  gat 

CGvp1  —  *rfHCfa 

Suggests  *<*  fi»ng 

ot  ifk  queai 

SO*!*  Jff  itra*i 
rrurilihi  ijpflt 


ISSUE  2 


■fttrwi  Ah:  ***' 


vdui  inn 


agdnlpHlcr 

mpgwflo  H» 

t&focksihri} 
M  tflja  |A 


Tiwfll  a 

aftfULMCMl.  AHtf 

#«  sand  our 
**«•  HiH  p'» 

n-tJmwwi  hails  ffi 

RHfc  Story  Fi* 

#L|ils  on  |hp 

"Tf^CmJui  nwo 


pnflKlffg,  thm 
pt  il  M  MHSi 


AbdlW«f?^ln 

ywt 


i  —  a 

Monaton'mte 

wHapnHl 

Kftwati  And 

jUfl  to  |WMt  it 

omttlM  fen 


ISSUE  3 


TfttOLtpni 


n«*fvh*i*; 


lafc«i*«odiooi 
H  SupertoK 

jnd  tonxuves  it 
lAllM*/XR«iC 
we  Art  know  and 


QmiSdtvjrt 


■or  tne  Sprat . 
M*ouWM*ou 

Cm  en  *  Hit 


A  Spectrum  — 

tut  *tyt  *sub  is 
iP  learn  hv. 
\ook  lor  tnt  m 
laii  upas 


til  hi«  mad** 


quality  of  lr»  A 

Mm  rhm,*i 

tor  pm?  tor 

mending,  as  you 

cattiMfrrtiv 

fnutstmi  von 

jnd  .ill  ifl  nwitS  r. 

S'jnu/mg  fM#|l* 
IMIl 

docidHUistv 
prM  haw  «*■ 
gwwHcfc* 

and  tnbt^alirjnft 

qI  a  dtarf  tut  kt* 

ashtmahiHm 

pUn  (i*  Malthpa 
wccKtwwgrkt 


ISSUE  4 


Fa  0n  bfil 

icfaenifutsol 

dhmtff«mit 

lwlteirMr.fl 

(SB 

wiMMdif  a« 


CHrHt — ^^»l«» 

QL  Find  qui  * 
>:rie  h^^jpf 


33 


As  tuck  would  have  it,  Ton!  Baker  has  come  up  with  an  interesting  way  to  access  true  random 

numbers  —  with  a  tittle  help  from  machine  coder  of  course. 


As  many  of  you  will  know,  random 
numbers  on  the  Spectrum  are  not  truly 
random  —  tliey  may  appear  10  he  ran 
dom,  but  they  are  in  fact  totally  pre- 
determined For  instance.  RAN- 
DOMIZE 42  fallowed  by  PRIM 
RND.RND  will  always  give  the  same 
number*:  0049 1 943  36mA  0.69065  857: 
I  haven't  cheated  by  using  the  RAN- 
DOMIZE statement.  I've  just  used  it  to 
make  the  point  raster  u> demonstrate  — 
RND  does  nat  rely  on  chance 

RANDOM  THOUGHTS 

Now  when  you  play  any  son  of  game 
which  involves  the  throwing  of  dice  or 
the  tossing  of  coins,  then  one  would 
usually  agree  that  the  outcome  is  truly 
random.  (At  this  point,  the  philo- 
sophers amongst  us  may  like  to  have  a 
quick  debate  on  the  various  merits  of 
tree  will  versus  determinism.)  Isaac 
Newton  would  tell  us  that if  we  knew  all 
t  h  c  van  a  h  les  i  n  vol  ved  ( veloc  i  ty  of  d  ice, 
density  of  air.  etc)  then  we  could  work 
out  in  advance  which  number  would  gel 
thrown;  on  the  other  hand, 
Schrodingefs  Cat  tells  us  differently. 
Maybe  the  world  is  flat  after  all. 

now  you  should  be  able  to  see  the 
subtle  difference  between  the  formula 
INT(6*RND)+l  and  throwing  a  dice. 
However  many  suitable  tests  for  ran- 
domness you  may  care  to  think  up,  one 
overriding  fac  l  remain*  thai,  w  hcrea* 
dice-rolling  involves  the  mysterious 
hand  of  fate,  the  RND  formula  is  com- 
pletely predetermined.  The  outcome  of 
a  dice  game  is  fixed  before  you  even 
press  RUN. 

You  can  add  a  little  bit  of  chance  into 
the  game  by  putting  a  RANDOMIZF 
statement  into  your  program  some- 
where (without  a  number  after  RAN- 
DOMIZE: )  [his  will  confuse  the  issue 
a  bit,  but  it  still  won't  Stop  i  he  remainder 
of  the  game  being  just  as  predetermined 

ever  What  youcoutd do  instead  is  to 
precede  every  single  use  of  RND  by 
either  an  IhlPUT  statement  or  a 
PAUSE  0  statement,  followed  by 
RANDOMIZE  For  instance: 


PAUSED    HANQOMIIE 


LET  D+ INT 


This  will  prevent  the  game  from  being 
predetermined  by  relying  on  the  fad 
that  a  human  player  will  not  necessarily 
*  ;iit  the  same  number  of  TV  frames  be- 
fore pressing  a  key:  it'll  load  the  random 
number  seed  with  a  different  value  each 
time  and  hence  give  you  a  different  ran- 
dom number  each  time. 

ATRUE  DEFINITION 

But  IV!  ltke  introduce  you  in  sin  other 
approach  I"m  going  to  define  a  user 
defined  function  called  FN  R(X»  (the 
numberinside  t  he  bracket  i  i  i  mponant  I 
Here's  what  happens  when  it's  reached 
in  the  middle  of  a  Basic  statement. 
Firstly,  control  will  PA USR  untilake> 
is  pressed,  and  then  the  computer  will 


select  a  random  integer  between  one 
and  the  number  inside  the  brackets. 
This  new  random  number  function  b 
nor  predetermined,  and  as  in  the  above 
example,  its  differing  possible  out- 
comes are  strictly  the  result  of  human 
intervention. 

Unlike  the  previous  example,  hofs 
ever,  the  determining  factor  is  noi  how 
long  you  take  to  pr  c-  s  s  a  k  e  >  it*a  which 
key  you  press!  In  other  words  sup 
pose  you  used  FN  R(6)  to  represent 
throwing  a  dice.  Alth;  the  action 

would  PAUSE,  The  human  player 
would  be  awn  re  thai  the  outcome  of  this 
dice  throw  is  determined  only  by  which 
of  the  keys  she  or  he  decides  to  press,  but 
does  not  know,  and  can  never  know, 


_£k*_ 


ASSEMBLER 


COMMENTS 


CTTnNvc 


IB 

20F4 

CD6E02 
IC 

2tFA 
43 


H 

E04B78SC 

CD2B2D 

CI 
EF 
At 


GAU  KEY_SCAN 

INCE 

JR  NZ.CHANCE 


DE  =  immediate  keyboard  scan 

Waits  until  your  fmqer  is  released 
from  the  last  key  pressed. 


NEW    KEY 


CALL  KEY 

INCE 
JHZNEW 
LD  BE 


SCAN 

KEY 


DE  =  immediate  keyboard  scan 

Waits  until  a  new  key  is  pressed 
B  —  code  corresponding  to  the  key 


PUSH  BC 
LO  BC.lSEEO) 
CALL  STACK    BC 

PQPBC 
RST29 
STACK  1 
ADD 


BC  =  random  number  seed 

Pushes  tins  seed  on  10  the 

calculator  sir; 

B  =  key  code 

Uses  the  float  rngpoml  calculator 

S.I 

S+1 


3437  n 

04 

341041 

OOOflUO 

3? 

02 
35F3 

fll 
03 


CH     LOOP 


STK  DATA  75 
MULT 

STK  DATA  65S37 
MOD 


DELETE 
DJNZCH 
STACK  1 
SUBTRACT 
ENDCALC 


LOOP 


S+1, 75 
75*{S+ 

75'<S+!).6S537 

75*{S+1)  MOD  65537.75 * 

UDIV  65537 

75-(S+1i  MOD  65537 

SEE0+1 

SEED+1,1 

SEED 

And  back  to  machine  code . 


GQAZ7D 


CALLFP    TO     BC 


HJ437&SG 


LDfSEEDl.BC 


BC.=  new  random  numtier  seed 
Stores  ihis  new  seed 


RET 


Returns  to  Basic  Noi» 
final  value  will  be  divided  by 
65536  to  give  a  final  random 
number 


34 


which  key  gives  which  result.  As  in  real 
life,  the  human  being  determines  her 
his  own  fate,  and  synchronicily  alone 
choose  the  winners  and  losers. 

The  algorithm  [\e  used  to  define  FN 
R  is  an  almost  direct  rij>ofTof  the  RND 
feature  in  the  ROM,  except  that  I've 
added  a  bit  to  allow  for  human  interven- 
tion, ffs  mostly  a  machine  code  routine, 
but  the  machine  code  only  works  out  a 
random  number  between  zero  and 
^5,  and  so  a  bit  of  multiplying 
dividing  and  INTingis  required  to  get  it 
into  range.  See  if  you  can  write  a  new- 
Basic  DEF  FN  statement  to  define. 
sayt  FN  S()  as  a  random  decimal  be- 
tween zero  and  one  —  you  can  use  exac- 
tly the  same  USR  call  (that  is.  my 
machine  ccxle)  a*  tve  used  for  FN 
ft  X)  but  you'll  need  to  change  the  rest 
of  the  statement. 

CHINESE  CHANCE 

For  those  of  you  with  Lin  inquiring  mind 
( alt  of  you*  I  hope )  look  carefully  at  how 
Tve  used  the  float  in  g  poin  t  c  a  leu)  ator  by 
bringing  in  the  RST  28  instruction.  You 
don  t  need  to  understand  all  the  the  cal- 
culator instruction  codes  (Til  admit  that 
34804 1000080  is  a  bit  confusing)  but  if 
you  can  get  the  drift  of  how  in  principle 
the  calculator  instructions  manipulate 
the  calculator  stack*  then  you're  well  on 
the  way  to  the  light  at  the  end  of  the 
tunnel 

(\  c  used  a  bit  of  computer  jargon  here, 
which  I'd  better  explain.  We  all  know 
that  15  divided  by  seven  is  two  remain- 


der one.  In  fractions,  its  2  l  ?.  and  in 
decimals  it's  2, 1 42857  . . ,  but  let's  jusf 
stick  to  integers  —  it's  easier.  In 
general.  A  divided  by  B  is  Q  remainder 
R,  Ineompuierese  we  can  write  'A  DIV 
B"  to  mean  Q<  and  *  A  MOD  B"  to  mean 
R.  Thus,  in  the  above  example  1 5  Dl  V  7 
equals  two,  and  15  MOD  7  equaisonc 
Mathematically  we  can  say  that  A  DIV 
B  equals  INT  ( A/B)  —  see  if  you  can 
work  out  what  the  mathematical  for^ 
nulla  for  A  MOD  B  is.  Anyway,  that 
explains  ail  the  unknowns  —  lef  s  move 
on  now  to  a  bit  of  program. 
This  is  a  Basic  program  for  throwing 


Chinese  coins,  The  question  marks  in 
the  last  line  refer  to  the  address  d  the 
machine  code  routine  labelled  CHAN- 
CE* which  is  listed  separately.  See  you 
up  there.  Ds 

1 0  FOH  1  =  1  TO  6 

2DLETC=rNlim+MR|2l+Fll[?| 
3D  PRINT  ftTB  — 1.0:  ^ — ": 

40  IF  C>4  THEN  PRINT   spaCff": 
SO  If  C<5 THEN  PAINT" 
60  PRINT  — " 
70  NEXT  I 

aOD!FFNfl[Kl=INT|ruSli??7?7/ 
6S536}+1 


^)    *W 


^U^4 


if  you  Aw  en/oyfftf  mMM^  yo^  mm^$s  m  ^  mfi^  Asmm 
—  try  (m  mw  gams  —  M&pes " 


STACK  1 00  LIG  HTPEN  ■  £28.75  gives  your  computer  eyes! 


SLR 

|S TACK  LIGHT  flIFU! 


JUST  TWO  OF  THE  EXCITING 
PRODUCTS  IH  THE  STACK  1 00  RANGE 


THE 


Available  tor  me  CBM  64  vtf>20  and  48K 
Sinclair  Spectrum,  this  quality  rifle  comes 
complete  wflft  Three  etching  games  and 
connects  to  your  computer  with  12  feet  of 
cable  The  SLR  pvts  you  in  j  different 
taague. 


£29.95 


STACK 


RANGE 


Please  send  me  a  Free  trochee,  pf*»  Nsi  and 
ttii  address  of  my  nearest  slock* 

torn 
MrJress 


CBM  64  Accessories 

Cartridges 

HELP  •  over  20  extra  commands,  disassembler  and 

machine  code  mooter.  DOS  t2*.7$ 

SUPERHELP  -  as  HELP  but  *rth  a  comprehensive 

2  pass  assemble*  C40.25 

ARROW  ■  toads  and  saves  a  32*  program  taster  man 

a  1541  disk  dnve  fuse  with  1530C2N cassette  deck) 

UtM 

ARROW  PLUS  -  as  ARROW  but  with  a 

comprehensive  6502  assembler  £44.65 

•-SLOT  MOTHERBOARD  -  i  switched:  £3X34 

and  a  Mf  range  or  printer  jniertacea 


STACK 1 OO 

CUSTOMER  INFORMATION  CENTRE 

290-298  Derby  Road  Booile  Liverpool  L20  ILK 
Trade  E nqmrn  s  05 1  933  55 1 1  #sk  f or  Trade  Sales 


AN  pnees  are  mduswe  of  VAT  and  detivery 


35 


■ 

1  »1*1*M  J  »7  S^ 

^rj 

^ 

iifflt       VjJ 

/  -                      / 

t|L 

) 

fl^O 

\T             1 

4s  computerised  bulletin 

boards  spring  up  aft  0¥er  the 

country,  you're  going  to 

miss  out  on  ait  the  action 

unless  you  get  hooked  up  to 

a  phone  fast  Our  man  on  the 

tine,  SO  Factor,  checks  out 

the  scene. 

As  micro  ownership  becomes  more 
widespread  and  the  initial  fascination 
with  *zap*  games  wears  off  within  [he 
growing  use rt>asc,  ittore  of  us  are  gelling 
involved  with  distant  computers  and 
databases  via  the  telephone  lines. 

This  used  to  be  ihe  only  way  one 
could  have  a  "home*  computer  at  ;ill 
The  computer  itself  resided  in  a  remote 
air-conditioned  basement,  and  the  user 
Sit  before  an  enormous  electro 
mechanical  teletype  machine  This 
would  display  the  dialogue  by  printing 
on  a  continuous  paper  roll,  with  the  con 
sequence  that  operators  of  such  a  link 
gained  a  nickname  from  the  intermittent 
'hack  hack  hack4  that  distinguished 
their  input  from  the  regular  chatter  of 
the  mainframe's  reply, 

Not  a  lot  of  people  know  about  that  in 
these  days  of  glass-faced  terminals  and 
thermal  printers.  And  the  pen  pic  who 
do  tap  away  in  the  wee  small  hours 
nowadays  (to  avoid  the  peak  time 
charges)  are  much  more  likely  lo  be 
cornm  u  n ic  aiing  with  the i  r  bant  or  check- 
ing  the  market  figures  than  to  be  polish 
ing  their  latest  Fortran  monsterpieee. 

In  fact,  modems  are  becoming  con- 
sumer products  at  a  rate  fast  approach- 
ing that  which  has  put  micros  into  the 
major  retail  chains.  And  about  asterisk- 
ing time,  too,  says  British  Telecom. 

PRESTELETAL 

BT  is  uncharacteristically  at  the  fore 
front  of  the  new  wave,  with  its  Prestcl 
database,  the  biggest  and  best  any- 
where, Preslel  has  over  300,000  pages 
of  information,  plus  electronic  mail  and 
a  link  to  the  Telex  system.  So  far  this 
technical  achievement  has  been  typi- 
cally British  —  that  is  to  say  p  it's  a  com- 
mercial failure  admired  all  over  the 
world. 


However,  the  fortunes  of  Prestcl  and 
its  myriad  Information  Providers  (Pres- 
lel doesn't  actually  fill  many  of  those 
pages,  but  rents  them  to  the  I  Ps)  are  on 
the  wan.  Subscribers  to  the  system  now 
number  upwards  of  40,000,  and  new 
IPs  providing  home  banking,  shopping 
and  other  such  consumer  oriented  ser- 
vices are  taking  the  subscriberbase 
away  from  the  travel  agent  specialist 
services  and  into  the  home  of  every- 
man. 

Many  of  these  new  services  are 
launched  with  dedicated  Prestc!  ter- 
minals which  will  do  nothing  else,  but 
micro  users  can  get  access  by  various 
add-ons,  and  us  Spectrum  users  have 
the  superb  Prism  VTX50OO  modem  — 
winner  of  the  BMA  Peripheral  of  the 
Year  award. 

Advertisements  give  the  impression, 
that  this  is  a  Micronet  modem  which1 
can  also  get  Preslel  but  Micronet  is  a 
Prcstel  IP  and  not  a  separate  system. 
Nor  is  il  the  only  microcomputer  interest 
section  on  PresteL  There's  also  View- 
fa*  —  a  similar  son  of  electronic 
magazine  with  the  same  son  of  features 
as  Micronet.  but  not  as  extensive,  The 
reason  thai  Micronet  is  bigger  is  that  it 
charges  a  subscription!  and  Vicwfas 
doesn't,  Both  have  daily  news  from  the 
micro  world,  downloadable  software, 
letters  from  readers,  informative  and 
humourous  columnists  (MicroMouse 
and  MicroGnome),  and  sub- IPs 
(usually  advertisers), 

Micronet  subscribers  could  be  for- 
given for  believing  that  Prestel  is  a 
branch  of  M  icronet  instead  of  the  other 
way  around,  as  they  get  sent  straight  to  a 
M  icronet  me  nu  at  I  og-on  rather  than  th  e 
Preslel  menu  Lhat  most  subscribers  get. 
By  the  lime  you  read  this,  however,  a 


_m3Sb  1c  tiiT 
ttlVtunt  1  in§  vii  i  lorent  wdmt 

uu  cm  msm  N*t#l  FhcracQvytiAij 


mi  H*  mviot  of 

"rtCl 


W#H,  ltpi  a  bit  mora  tricky  than  tht*  »4 
impli**  —  but  lh*r*'*  cartalnly  a  what* 
world  of  Information  out  th*r*r 


computer  interest  menu  will  have  taken 
its  place,  giving  a  menu-selected  route 
to  View  fax  as  well 

Unfortunately,  this  change  goes 
beyond  menus,  and  the  View  fax  section 
will  no  longer  be  free  to  all  Prestel  sub- 
scribers View  fax  is  to  get  a  share  of  the 
Micronet  subscript  if  a  ill  be* 

come  the  'Prestel  Microcomputing1 
subscription.  This  will  not  disturb 
M icronet  subscribers  much  (;is  the  cost 
will  be  the  same)  but  non-nettcrs  will  be 
entitled  lo  feel  that  part  of  the  Prestel 
service  for  which  they  are  already  pay- 
ing Prestel  subscriptions  is  being  with- 
drawn. And  when  charges  are  intro- 
duced for  the  previously  free  electronic 
mail  as  will  shortly  happen,  you  may 
hear  loud  disgruntle  mem  from  all  and 
sundry. 

The  costs  involved  consist  of  sub- 
scriptions, page  charges,  computer  and 
telephone  time  charges.  The  last  two 
can  be  avoided,  or  reduced,  by  us  ing  the 
system  only  after  six  and  at  weekends, 
and  you  need  only  pay  page  charges  if 
you  insist  on  seeing  pages  that  the  IP 
charges  for.  such  as  slock  market  infor- 
mation. The  subscription  to  Prestel 
costs  £5  a  quarter,  and  the  micro- 
corn  puling  section  another  £S. 

KEEP  IT  A  SECRET 

You  won't  be  able  lo  gel  access  lo  Pres 
let  without  a  subscription  because  it's 
protected  by  a  password  system. 
"Hacking- in'  is  unrewarding  because  of 
the  large  number  of  possible  password 
combinations  which  may  consist  of 
mixed  upper,  lower  and  numeric 
characters,  giving  over  16  million  com 
binations  in  just  four  letters.  Any  stories 
you  may  hear  about  breaking  into  Pres- 
tel are  due  to  subscribers  being  careless 


And  tnonlung  of  .idt,  you  can  oven  find 
out  mor*  about  competing  I  ill**  to  Your 
Spectrum.  [Whjili  thit  doing  h*r*T  Cd.J 


If  It1*  n*w*  you'r*  aft+r .  If  icrvntt  BOO 
will  provid*  you  with  all  th*  'dirt*  on  lb* 
Sinclair  Haaaarch! 


Keying  '01 '  will  provide  you  with*  fait 
mtnu  of  It* mm  yo'j  can  accru  on 
Micron*!* 


37 


with  their  numbers,  rather  than  clever 
work  by  some  whizz-kid,  Some  of  the 
more  prominent  names  among  the  *  care- 
less* might  surprise  you  PC IV magazine 
published  its  identity  number  on  the 
contents  page  of  a  recent  issue  instead 
of  Us  *sysielfc  number.  The  systel  num- 
ber is  the  public  number  used  as  an 
address  to  send  mailbox  messages  to  — 
the  other  is  a  secret  between  you  and 
ftiestel  \  ortunciidjr,PCll  pOtitsidtfl 
lily  number  changed  before  anyone 
managed  to  hack  through  the  additional 
four-character  password. 

M  i  cr one!  its*  I  f  w  as  not  so  I  uc  k  y .  T  be 
organisation  has  a  couple  of  identities  it 
loans  out  to  exhibitors  and  magazine 
reviewers  calkd k  Micronet  800  Demon- 
strations* and  'Micronet  800  Ethii 
tions\  Lots  of  people  have  had  these 
numbers  at  one  time  or  another,  and 
Micronet  changes  the  passwords  in- 
cessantly to  keep  out  the  unauthorised. 
However,  a  rccenr  exhibitor  found:  ihc 
numbers  easier  to  remember  when  taped 
to  the  front  of  the  display  machine,  and 
rather  more  people  than  usual  got  a  look 
at  them!  Ordinarily  this  would  not  ha\  e 
been  a  catastrophe,  because  the  wor>i 
the  interlopers  should  have  been  able  to 
do  w  as  download  a  lot  of  c  xpe  n  s  i  ve  soft- 
ware  from  Micronet' sown  pages.  This 
is  the  ft,  but  Micronet  presumably  would 
not  actually  have  to  pay  itself  for  what 
was  taken 

But  the  story  goes  on.  The  hackers 
apparently  sent  mailbox  messages 
(purporting  to  be  from  Micronet)  to 
legitimate  betters  asking  them  to  send 
in  their  secret  numbers  to  the  Micronet 
Exhibit  ions  mailbox  number,  to  help  in 
an  effort  to  catch  some  naughty  person 
sending  lewd  mailboxes.  Some  netters 
fell  for  the  con,  ami  shortly  found  them- 
selves locked  out  of  their  own  account; 
the  hackers  had  logged  on  with  their 
identity  and  changed  the  password  The 
moral  of  the  story.  (  ,  don't  tell  anyone 
your  secrets! 

ON  THE  DOUBLE 

Presicl  modems  use  a  split  baud  rate  of 
1200  75,  uluch  has  no*  bQGCUf  I 
European  standard  for  such  systems, 
German  and  Dutch  Prestel-type  data- 
bases can  be  cal  led  up  on  a  Pre  st  c  I  m  od 
cm.  as  can  a  growing  host  of  domestic, 
private  and  commercial  systems,  pro- 
vided you  know  the  numbers ,  For  once* 
perhaps,  a  'standard'  may  be  stuck  to, 
and  a  Prestel  modem  looks  like  an 
investment  for  the  future  rather  than  a 
toy  of  the  moment. 

The  idea  of  the  twin  speeds  is  that 
Ptestet  needs  to  send  a  lo4  of  data  while 
you  need  usually  send  only  an  oc- 
casional menu  selection.  However,  the 
characters yo u  transmit  will  be  used  to 
buy  goods,  book  tickets  —  usually  just 


spending  money  in  some  way  —  so  they 
are  sent  at  a  slower  speed;  presumably 
less  susceptible  to  corruption  by  line 
noise.  It  makes  sense,  but  there  are 
other  standards. 

FROM  LITTLE  ACORNS.  • 

The  original  standard  for  data  links 
(ignoring Telexes  50 baud,  which  is  still 
the  international  Telex  standard)  was 
limited  less  by  the  telephone  system 
than  by  the  speed  of  the  mechanics  of 


the  teleprinter,  and  so  remained  at  1 10 
baud  long  after  the  VDU  took  oven 
Some  systems  still  use  I  1 0  baud,  but  at 
just  10  characters  per  second  ifs  too 
slow,  and  has  been  largely  superseded 
by  300  baud 

The  people  who  use  300  baud  are  the 
pre-eonsumer  boom  professionals  and 
enthusiasts.  A  lot  of  the  private  and  cor- 
poration databases  arc  un  300  baud, 
especially  in  the  USA,  where  breaking 
into  private  (or  even  government )  data- 


THE  BULLETIN  BOARD  BOX 

TTIU                     CONTACT               PMONf 

NUMBER 

AIDE           FURTHER  IEH1U 

MCI 
Ftt.* 

C6BC  CiBlrii     ROQerDrew         06992314 

Yes            30Dt»udir?t.  300  baud  Bell 
and*  200/75  V23 

UK                  Boyd  Hitchcock  0626  890014 
StttMhtf 

24-hour  opetalion 

CBBSSurrty        Mike  Parker        04862  25174 

24-hour  operation 

CBBS  Chlltern 


Ken  Hirst  and 
Alan  Walker 


07073  28723 


Operation  \§  prided  from 
16  30 10  22  30  (Mote 
the  phone  number  changes 
on  M  onday  s  and  Wednesdays 
10  07073  39241) 


Ftr»ao**U     Fred  Brown        0462  859169 


Fena-Bti 


ViciorSaleh       01-902  2546 


Millhoi-BG 

Urerjetl 

Hiiibttiso 
Wesl  Wdfindi 


Peter  Tootill 
Jim  Rodeo 


051  -426  8924 


Operation  times  | 
Tuesdays  and  Thursdays  — 
19  00  to  22.00,  Saturdays 
and  Sundays—  13  00  to 
22  00.  and  daily  (lor  1  he 
USA) -00  00  lo  06  00  Bell 
J03 

Operation  is  provided  in  the 
evenings  and  weekends  Just 
ring  up  and  ask  lor  f  omm- 
_60_ 

24-hour  operation 


0384  635336     Yes 


" 


Tilt  LftiiH       John  Nolan 


01-34B9400 


Operation  is  provided  every 
day  from  17  30  to  08  30, 
pi  us  Sundays  all  day 

Operation  is  provided  every 
day  from  09  00  to  01  00 

can  and  01  oo  was  oo 

BILL  103 


Chris  Cam 


07Q3  437200 


•n 


Operation  is  provided  on 
weekdays  from  1 7  00  ro 
08  00,  and  all  weekends 


TIBS               Leo  Knaggs 
Btindltrd  Board 

0258  54494 

24 -hour  operation 

S«ulhtra  11       Jonattian 
Sanders 

0243511077 

Yes 

Operation  is  i 
20  00  to  02  00 

•U-1ET  CBtt     Peier  Goldman 
landoi 

01*399  21 36 

Operation  is  provided  on 
Sundays  only,  from  1 7  00  lo 
22.00 

BBS  North          Paul  Smith 
Birmingham 

0627236810 

res 

24  hour  operation 

CABB  Ctmeriir  Tony  Dennis 

Aniweri 

01-631  3076 

24-hour  operation.  The? e  is  a 
300/300 service, toulltie  75/ 
1200  service  test  Ml  no! 
working 

BrtHih  Apple 
Syitim  Uitrt 

BMP 

0742  667983 

24-hour  operation 

"Th#  Ting  buck"  facility  coninti  at  you  dmJiing  tti*  r*l*van(  numbir,  Uttmy  it  ring 
onct,  replacing  1  ha  r*c«iv*r  and  tfc*ft  rt  dtRllmg, 

Thftt  bull  vl  m  boirrtitrt  All  fr*»  Prifiih  tyittmi  and  cin  b*  ■cc*ti«d  by  any  on*  with 
Ih*  ntcttury  *quipm*M. 


» 


Sulis  Software 
invites  you  to  a  private 
showing  of  all  their  learning 
programs-for  just  £1 


It  his  been  calculated  that  60%  of 
people  who  buy  home  computers  want  to 
use  them  for  educational  purposes— bui 
that  only  about  l(J%  ever  do  so 

It  jsn't  surprising.  Games  are  easy 
come,  easy  go— and  are  on  sale  every- 
where. If  you  buy  a  dud— we)  U  better 
luck  next  time, 

Educational  programs  ore  different 
You're  looking  lor  quality  and  lasting 
appeal — which  is  what  Sulis  Software 
programs  are  ail  about. 

Then  there's  the  problem  of  level 
Age  is  no  guide  to  ability  or  knowledge, 
and  a  program  which  is  too  easy  or  too 
difficult  isn't  much  use.  Shop  assistants 
aren't  always  knowledgeable,  and 
magazines  are  full  of  games  People 
know  it's  important  to  choose  the  right 
programs— but  how  do  you  go  about  it ' 

The  pleasure  of  learning 

For  10  yean  people  have  been 
using  our  products  to  improve  their 
language  skills.  Writers*  journal  IMS, 
linguists,  teachers  and  designers  have 
worked  with  us  to  create  materials  which 
help  people  to  learn— and  to  find  pleasure 
in  learning. 

Now  learning  has  a  new  dimension. 
Sulis  Software  programs  offer  new 
Opportunities  for  every  family  la  benefit 
fiXOTi  the  individual  tuition  thai  a  computer 
often 


A  unique  offer 

People  are  choosy  about 
educational  software — and  rightly  so. 
You  need  time  to  look  at  what's  available 
and  decide  for  yourself  whether  a 
program  is  right  for  you  or  for  your 
family  So  we  are  offering  you  a 
demonstration  cassette  or  disk  with 
samples  of  all  our  programs  to  run  on 
your  own  computer  in  the  comfort  of 
your  own  home. 

you  see  each  Sulis  Software 
program  in  action,  you  can  judge  for 
yoiimtf  what  the  level  is,  whether  you 
like  the  content,  the  graphics,  the  way  the 
screen  is  set  out  and  all  the  other  factors 
that  go  into  a  good  program. 

English  and  French 

Suits  Software  specializes  in 
programs  for  English  and  French— 
although  we  do  have  other  subjects.  Our 
programs  aren't  dull  revision  notes  on 
screen— they  are  designed  to  improve 
spelling,  vocabulary  and  grammar. 

With  English  programs,  that  means 
better  results  in  every  subject,  as  well  as 
belter  results  from  job  applications.  For 
French,  it  means  increased  fluency  and 
accuracy 


A  satisfied  user 

Young  AlHMair  M  failed  his 
English  Language  O  Level  last  June 
He  got  a  Grade  D  He  wroce  to  us 
earlier  this  year 

"7  would  tike  to  compltment 
SiJis  Soft  wan-  an  their  achtevemtnt 
in  producing  English  teaching 
program*  which  art  both  etyayuhle 
ami  usefully  tnformat 

*7      used      the      programs 
M  ttrifpij » it  and  Besieged  at  part  of 
my  preparation  far  my  English  C#(  t 
O  /fifi  exam  rr-sn,  which  I  ' 
fatty  passed  with  a  iimdt  A  rvsull 

Tff  was  ** henna!  that  I  passed 
the    exam*    an  h    language 

qualification  being  essential  far  entry 
to  universities. " 


Try  before  you  buy 

Suits  Software  sample  cassettes 

only  cost  £1.  If  you  prefer  to  use  ;i 
disk,  you  can  order  a  demo-disk  for 
£2 .  And  the  cost  of  the  sample 
cassette  or  disk  is  deducted  from  your 
first  order. 

Whether  you  are  looking  for 
games  or  grunt- work,  whether  you 
want  a  program  for  a  pre  schooler  or 
an  adult— you II  find  a  program  to 
suit  you 

Take  advantage  of  this  very 
Our  promise:  every  time  you  sit     special  offer  and  send  off  for  your 
dtmn  10  a  Sulis  program,  you'll     cassette  or  disk  TODAY. 
enjoy  yourself— and  you'H        £*S    luiia  toftw**  IM 

learn  something,     %^v  W 'QMSi*iaw,w«4*iJ3rAcifcuiGa 


I  jj*  Md  1Uu  <     imai. 

|    To  MitSlfbPMiLrt    I BF I  POST  4  Cto^  Si  Jlfcft*?  Sr*M  B*ihBA11tP 

|    MH-      It 


-    II 
I 


|J*4    i 

Dm  - 


m-  wit  PCM**  to  Suir*  Idtafi  L>- 
w*bn»  HAS1 


rrr  rrrrr  r 


4M    *Jf»  ** 


bases  has  become  a  popular  pastime. 
You  don't  have  to  get  involved  in  such 
activities  to  have  fun  with  a  modern, 
however,  as  there  are  many   public 


modern fe  as  used  by  almost  all  remote 
systems. 

The  Interface  I  manual  is  very  vague 
on  the  RS232  link,  possibly  because  it 
tries  to  avoid  making  this  admission. 
Dr.  Ian  Logans  The  Spectrum  Micro- 
drive Book  has  much  more  information, 
including  some  00  using  the  RS232  10 
link  other  computers  to  the  Spectrum, 
but  he  does  not  mention  modems  This 
is  very  significant,  Tor  Logan  helped  to 
write  the  Shadow  ROM 

The  problem  is  simply  that  turning  a 


mu 


COMMERCIAL  BULLETIN  BOARDS 

CONTACT  FURTHER  DETAILS 


Frttltl 


FREEFONE  2296 


They  will  give  you  the  information  to 
apply  %  an  account  and  a  fick  socket 
For  the  1200/75  sendee,  local  phone 
numbers  arc  issued  and  you'll  f  equrre 
special  hardware  and  software  You 
wont  need  anything  special  tor  the  300 
buad  service,  but  make  enquiries  on  the 
same  number.  For  more  details  of 
VIE  WWW  256,  consult  page  800690 
within  Prestel 


Tiiicii  eiti 


Julie  Ireland, 
4?  Weston  St  ml. 
London  SCI  30D 


John  Douglas 
BL  Systems  Limited, 
Grosvenor  House, 
Prospect  Hill. 
Redditth 
WorcsB97  4DQ 
Tel  05?7  64274 


Meruit  IN 


Durrani  House, 

8  Herbal  Hill 
London  EC1R5JB 
Tef  01-837  3699 


access  hobbyist  databases-  devoted  to 
interests  varying  from  computing  (of 
course )  to  wife-swapp i ng ( it  gels  so  bor- 
ing in  California) .  You  can  even  get  Prc- 
stel  on  300  baud  if  you  insist,  but  only 
on  a  London  phone  number. 

For  a  computer  nut.  the  amateur 
bulletin  boards  are  more  interesting 
than  Prestel  as  a  whole.  Where  else 
could  you  read  a  letter  from  Douglas 
Adams  about  how  he  is  using  a  DEC 
Rainbow  and  Brainstorm  to  design  the 
Hitch  hikers  Guide  video  game,  if  not 
on  Peter  Tootill's  board  in  Liverpool? 
Reading  other  people's  mail  (providing 
they  don't  flag  it  'private1)  If  allowable 
in  the  club- 1  ike  recesses  of  a  board,  but 
could  never  be  sanctioned  by  Prestel 

While  the  individual  boards  are  a  lot 
smaller  than  Prestel,  there  are  a  lot 
more  of  them  —  especially  if  you  arc 
prepared  to  phone  very  long  distance. 
Fred  Brown's  board  in  Hull  has  a  list  of 
foreign  boards  so  long  1  h  at  dow  n  load  ing 
it  u  ill  in  itself  cost  as  much  as  a  call  lo 
the  States,  The  individual  nature  of 
these  enthusiast  systems,  and  the  free 
access  to  all  comers,  makes  them  ad- 
venturous when  compared  lo  the  more 
regulated  Prestel 

HARDWARE  SHOPPING 
LIST 

First  the  bad  news.  The  RS232  port  on 
Interface  J  is  not  quite  the  real  article,  ft 
won't  work  with  a  proper  full  duplex 


byte  of  data  into  a  stream  of  bits  or*  con 
verecly,  assembling  a  stream  of  bits  into 
a  byte,  requires  the  personal  attention  of 
the  Spectrum's  CPU,  and  it  cant  do 
both  at  once.  Most  serial  ports  depend 
on  a  dedicated  chip  to  serialise  the  out 
put  and  parallelise  the  input,  and  the 
CPU  need  only  check  on  the  pon  once 
in  a  white  to  see  if  a  byte  has  come  in  or  if 
one  can  be  sent.  Interface  1  saves  the 
cost  of  this  chip  by  doing  the  job  with 
software,  Don't  complain,  it's  your 
money  that's  being  saved,  and  you  can 
use  the  RS232  link  for  just  about  any- 
thing but  a  full  duplex  modem.  I  Ve  used 
it  to  download  files  from  a  CP/M  com 
purer  and  10  store  Basic  listings  on  the 
disks  of  the  same  machine  for  printing 
later. 

When  ihe  Spectrum  sends  a  byte,  it 
has  to  hang  around  sending  and  timing 
each  bit  And  when  it  goes  to  look  at  the 
input,  it  arrives  in  the  middle  of  a  byte, 
like  as  not .  This  is  much  worse  than  mis- 
sing  a  byte  entirely,  as  it  garbages  the 
lolloping  bytes  as  well  by  putting  the 
whole  stream  of  bits  out  of  step. 

If  you  re  hooked  lo  another  com- 
puter, the  handshake  lines  can  be  used 
to  stop  the  other  computer  sending  until 
the  Spectrum  is  ready  —  but  this  won't 
work  with  moderns,  which  have  only 
one  line  to  send  a  signal  down.  They  use 
separate  pairs  of  tones  for  high  and  U  m 
on  originate  and  answer,  and  these  four 
tones  arc  about  the  limit  that  can  be 


reliably  accommodated  on  a  phone 
line, 

So  if  you  want  to  get  onto  300  baud 
with  a  Spectrum,  you'll  need  not  only  a 
modem,  hut  a  proper  RS232  pon. 
There  aren't  that  many  available,  but 
Maplin  has  one  that  looks  particularly 
attractive:  it's  not  only  inexpensive,  but 
has  its  driving  software  in  an  on  hoard 
EPROM.  Unfortunately,  the  Maplin 
representative  who  promised  to  send 
me  a  unit  for  review  was  subsequently 
nobbled  by  terrorists  from  the  inter 
national  VIC  users  underground  — 
otherwise,  I  would  certainly  have 
received  it  by  now.  Maplin  also  does  a 
very  cheap  300  baud  modem,  but  both 
items  are  in  kit  form  Maplin  also 
operates  its  own  bulletin  board 

The  add-on  RS232  port  that  I  have 
used  is  produced  by  U -Micro- 
computers, the  Apple  specialists.  This 
is  a  much  more  costly  unit,  and  requires 
a  software  driver  to  be  loaded  from 
tape.  k  .  on  the  other  hand,  it  does  come 
ready  assembled.  Using  it  requires 
some  software  ability  on  the  part  of  the 
operator,  and  you'll  have  to  use  the 
dreaded  soldering  iron  to  deal  with  the 
baud  rate  selection,  at  leaM  However, 
it  does  give  you  bis  of  facilities,  with 
two  channels,  split  speeds*  and  lots  of 
COflirol  over  things  you  probably  don't 
even  want  to  know  about,  This  is  the  one 
you'll  need  if  you  go  for  a  multimode 
modem, 

IN  THE  MOOD  FOR 
MODEMS 

Once  you  have  your  RS232  port,  the 
range  of  modems  available  borders  on 
the  vastt  and  will  certainty  attain  true 
vastness  soon.  Super  single  chip  ver 
sions  are  appearing  on  the  market  now 
which  will  cope  with  all  the  different 
baud  rates  and  tone  standards,  all  in  one 
box;  some  of  them  arc  even  BT  Afh 
proved!  The  best  known  and  most  talked 
about  -  probably  because  it  was  the 
first  fairly  cheap  multimode  —  is  the 
Minor  Miracles  WS2O00,  but  a  flock  of 
similar  items  are  chasing  hard  on  its 
heels. 

The  WS2000  will  cope  with  300p 
600  and  1 200  baud,  both  European  and 
USA  (same  speed,  different  tooti 
standards.  It  will  also  work  with  the 
1 200/75  for  Prestel;  and  it  willalsodoii 
backwards,  75/1200,  lo  communicate 
with  a  computer  using  a  Prestel  modem 
f  1 10  baud  usually  uses  the  same  tones 
as  300,  so  that!  too.  should  workj. 
Mulhmodcs  all  cost  over  £100.  bul  if 
you  are  happy  to  be  restricted  to  300 
baud,  then  there  are  lots  of  modems  at 
£50  or  less  available  on  the  surplus 
market  -  or  in  kit  form  from  Maplins. 
Points  to  look  for  arc 

Originate/answer  The  box  making  the 
call  should  use  originate"  tones,  the 
other  uses^answer*.  If  you  want  to  have 
others  phone  you  as  well,  then  one  of 
you  wilt  need  both,  otherwise  'originate- 
only"  will  do. 

US/Europe  Yanks  use  different  tones 
and  drive  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  road. 
Don1!  complain  to  me.  If  you  want  onto 
US  boards  then  you  pay  more,  US  stan- 


40 


■phone 

*  HOME! 


dards  arc  often  called  Bel!,  ours  arc 
calkd  CCtTT  after  the  famous  Belgian 
inventor. 

Autodial  Noljust  laziness,  sometimes 
you  will  have  io  dial  repeatedly  to  get  on 
to  a  popular  board.  This  is  e specialty 
useful  for  call- back  boards,  where  you 
ring  once,  hang  up  and  ring  again  This 
is  often  done  when  the  board  shares  the 
domestic  phone,  so  that  the  household 
knows  when  the  phone  call  is  for  the 
computer  Autodial  can  cost  a  lot  extra, 
butacheap<  ruin  approved  push-button 
phone  with  last  number  re-dial  is  almost 
as  good  and  easier  to  ute 
Ayto-aitswcr  -  Lets  the  computer 
nis wet  the  phone.  If  s  only  needed  if 
you  want  to  set  up  your  own  board .  in 
which  case  you  also  need  at  least  half  a 
Megabyte  of  disk  drives. 
Acoustic/ direct  coupled  You  aren't 
allowed  to  couple  directly  to  Telecom 
lines  unless  BT  approves.  However, 
absolutely  no  one  pays  any  attention  to 
this.  Get  a  feu  phone  sockets  put  in  so 
you  can  move  the  phone  from  room  to 
room  and  make  sure  your  modem  has  a 
suitable  plug.  (Buy  some  BT  shares  as 
insurance  |  Ideally,  the  modem  plugs 
into  the  wall  and  the  phone  into  the 


modem.  If  you  get  a  Prestel  subscrip- 
tion, they  put  in  a  socket  more  or  less 
automatically,  and  charge  maybe  £15 
to  £25. 

If  you  want  Prestel  on  a  Spectrum  then 
the  Prism  VTX  5000  (£100)  is  the  only 
way  lo  go.  This  is  because  the  Prestel 
page  is  40  characters  wide*  while  the 
Spectrum  screen  is  only  32.  Prisms 
modem  contains  a  splendid  program  in 
ROM  which  downloads  itself  on  power- 
up  and  deals  with  this  and  alt  other 
quirks  of  the  system.  It's  all  menu 
driven,  easy  to  use  and  packed  with  use 
ful  features,  A  mullimode  would  re 
quire  an  equivalent  program,  and  I 
haven't  heard  of  any  for  the  Spectrum. 
The  Bccb  can  use  a  mullimode  on  Pr 
tel  more  easily  because  it  already  has  a 
Presiel-style  screen  mode.  The  300 
baud  Prestel  service  in  London  is  de- 
signed for  non-  graphic  terminals  so  it's 
not  very  pretty,  and  it  stilt  expects  a  40 
column  screen 

THE  BULLETIN  BLUES 

It  would  therefore  seem  that  two  separate 
modems  are  necessary  if  you  want  to 
see  it  all,  but  there  is  another  aspect  to 
the  advent  of  the  multimodes.  Some  of 
the  bulletin  board  operators  are  begin- 
ning to  use  mullimode  modems  at  their 
end.  Originally  this  was  to  tempt  USA 
callers  by  providing  Bell  tones  at  certain 
ti  mes  of  day .  but  some  boards  have  now 
been  set  up  to  detect  the  standard  a 
caller  is  using  from  the  transmitted 


tones,  and  adjust  themselves  to  suit  the 
caller  —  even  if  you're  using  Prestel 
standard.  This  approach  is  not  without 
its  odd  problem  cither,  as  Prestel  is  a 
paged  system  and  the  boards  are  based 
on  scrolling;  but  it  is  just  usable  if  you 
can  cope  with  a  messy  screen,  and  even 
tually  someone  will  come  up  with  a 
modification  of  the  Prism  modem  soft- 
ware to  eliminate  the  mess. 

It  remains  lo  be  seen  whether  the  bulk 
of  the  systems  operators  will  want  to  go 
to  the  trouble  of  attracting  hordes  of 
Micrognats  to  their  already  well- 
populated  and  unpaid  bulletin  board 
services,  If  they  do,  please  try  to 
re  member  that  they  are  on  our  side,  and 
not  a  target.  I  mean,  fun's  fun,  but  div 
rupting  an  amateur  board  is  not  par- 
ticularly clever  or  impressive.  They  are 
meant  to  be  Accessible,  and  if  making 
them  more  widely  accessible  brings  in 
too  many  CB  type  walks,  no  one  will 
bother. 

Incidentally,  if  that  wife- swapping 
notion  is  still  prey  ingon  y  our  mind,  then 
try  the  Sympaiicocontactpagesori  Pre- 

l.  sub- heading  Heart  search,  or  in- 
deed Time  Om 's  electronic  small  ads. 

The  tables  included  in  this  article 
come  from  good  or  Roger  Drew "  s  C  BB  S 
board  in  Cumbria.  Roger  is  one  of  the 
p  ionee  rs  w  ho  i  s  t  ry  in  g  to  get  h  is  board  to 
sync  with  all-comers  —  not  an  easy 
task.  I  have  cut  out  all  the  menus  and 
communications  rigamarole  in  order  to 
give  you  a  false  impression  of  how  easy 
it  all  is.Bs 


48K  SPECTRUM 

SUY  ON  I  TAPE 
GET  THE  OTHER  FREE 


TAPE  1 

EfMMtk    ««W    d    tllff    l(MM|     -     bwi    ItOW    tfct    ffMNOf 

actvallf  worlu.   fnpal  poor  owi  budget  and  t*t  Hit  rtiattv  An 
kx  urate,  ttty  advanced1  program,  i  imply  explained  in  itaf  by  tftp 

flWtflil      Itdtdtl      tXpl«M**0nl      of      MRfftRfiffli      «MJ      MaTltft 

imrib. 

Eini  tern's  The  one  i  of  fcelntivrty  ■  loani  abaal  tint  IrvirtL 
fravltf ,  nl«k  bole*  ttL  All  limply  tip  to  tod  wM  rbt  ktlp  of 

TAPE  2 

Blackjack  -  e  tartly  «  played  in  Iriltvh  (Diinov  Allow*  yo*  to 
crfiio  yoor  awn  tytftm  and  rtii  in  svuei*. 

Poker  -  May  ofaiost  fi*e  tipcrt  compvftf  band*,  Fftftwoi 
iodwii  ontiv  irrnddltv  irreiabti  oft* 

F  aatbol  L  Pood  -  the  moil  belptel  program  on  tne  market.  C  rente 
foor  e*o  * jtft mi  and  oflvolly  wo  if  riioy  will  w»  or  lose.  Fealtm 
ndovt  hill  ptrw%  bajajban  nam  H#d  pormi. 

Wofie  Raring  -  a  powifful  prof  ran  ibnr  guarantee*  to  improve 
ft#r  cmucti  of  wifMiaf.  Again  allows,  you  lo  a  **ii  and  tttr  yoar  own 
fyifnmi. 

Foil  inttrvffion*  given  for  tit  mHt  value  program  or  the  matkit 
So*d  choqut*  eor  podel  oriWn  for  £7.5  it:- 

K  Houghton  Software 

1 1  Lower  Common 

South  Putney  SW 1 5 


BETA  BASIC  1.8 

ENHANCED  BASIC  FOR  SPECTRUM  48K 

FOR  GRAPHICS  -  STRUCTURED  PROGRAMMING 

-  DATA  HANDLING 


I    B  m  mn  PO*«ly(  thin  tV«i f  W#  **■'  I  k#«w  iuki  tEi  09  th^  Q*  w  V" 
putt**  i*    rem*    unl    bliHI    IfW    mti     f*nd    1.14    f    L*rg*    I  A  I      to*    lurilw 

Mnfmniion 


<_  r*Ci*1  on  *n|ry    Fu*V  «mp*Ubtt  *H*i  5f»£trkri*i  Bih;    U*r  ro4"v*  COTpalOU 

LOfnprilwFtwvi  innMfiue* 

NOTE:  IWhh  IDhni  *******  tor  10V4UK  $ootnvn  M  111  W 


yp»»», 


Ulirt«*r     in 


I   —  *—  L 


FUNCTIONS 

r^BB  k»4  f##4»  •!■■•  «i^p^pi  -Mi  pq 

I  N*    lUl,    ,.  »      «     « 


■  ■  1 2-n*a«  tMPom«*oi»  to  »«■  mwmei 

0*  P*  nm  Lrt    I 


I  0  awmMi  *t  €4  fro    f  h** 

OttOt  MmffJMjr  and  rvl^m  onqpwl  n*w   ' 


1  0  l^fwni  ot  f  1 1  oo  **  «nda**d 
l«  f  1 1  so  *o*  toiptgn  orOoivl  Choojutt  pnvooiv  in  HTMOrr 

1  dor  T  b*l*w  fl'  htUi  1*4  *ft*  f^  4WU«A  frl  A*U  H**-L  1  M 

■aAnmbmI 

MM 


BETASOFT 

92  OXFORD  ROAD,  MOSELEY, 

BIRMINGHAM  B13  9SQ 


41 


Complete  your  computer 

10l$Lt  KELWOOD  SOUND  POWER  BASE 

qgf$$  ha s  all  the  'basic  bits'  that  Sinclair  left  off. 

\  Fully  adjustable  sound  amplification  v\\\      *  //  / 

10N-OFF  re-set  switch    v\  i\  \\  JJ rX/ 

LOAD/SAVE  switch     \i 

Angled  stand 

•  Does  not  take  up  any  extra  space      i  it// 
9  Aff  wires  included  +  Saves  we&r      V  J 
and  tear  on  connections  •  Gives     ^^ 
dtertncf  cicA  wtfft  each  key        ^*£^ 
depression  •  Amplifies         -^ 
alt  sound  on  program     t 
and  on  cassette  , 

•  Does  not  need 
bamoes 

•  Goes  not  interfere 
with  inside  Of  ( 
Spectn/m  or  any  other 
add*on$  #  Wo  sQkfenng 
required,  simply  plugs  in    i 
REFSPBI  £19.90 

Standard  Power  Base  without  sound         - 
SPECTRUM  REF  PBSI  E13.50  * 

2X81  REFPB2XI  £13,00 
For  the  above  wtth  coot-it  units  included  please  add  £5.05    * 


add-its  for  Sinclair  addicts 


BACKPACKS 


COOL-IT  UNIT 

TAMP*  tmma*f-J^  yC^ 
ofyotroomputof    -  *^v'+*  - 

ti¥OurSp«srurfi»  ,         ^^  '''*■*'£&  / 


Sswuon  o*  aw  maipinaatHi  ja  ccmpwi  yon- 

wnptftt   AJIfiawSAVE   L  .0 AD  art!  QN/OF  F  watering 
«Ji  hw»ir^^ti*liar«iQiTTiarGQi^ 
infr%»gH.  tell  tor  um  witt  Cfliad  KpftKHMtb 
RafftPl  -  Fuiyvnn«b4*fpgn0vnp-  3  h  1 3  amp  ■«*■% 
«uwatfi«ndfiKnir4»tgr-5^ppfindfAjg    ,         C?7W 
W  SP2    »BPi  tM  no  ax****.  caH*afvlpikjga  mm 
room  id  its  yM  o*n  Dtraplug  socfcab  Elf  50 

Hat  B*3     i.»ePV&anoKiund  OlM 

Rat  •M-liBFlMlUlOWJW  •«*««»  'OS 

Rat  IF*  -  ZXM  i  vwvon  *x  «x*vt»  man*  p^ 
naon  cabiamtpajQ  £2C)lft 

Rat  pt^  »bp5  tun*  cat*  am*at»  MLAt 

WOBBLE  STOPPER 

Fiat  VSWC5^  T##d  M*f£Twra;fr 

£ *v* Nv>g & pma»    Fat  fwiw^.  ",  ia-o  H^LTWir.  n 


ZXEl  runmuci-. 


' 


Sajw«  Carf-JT  em 

zxai  F^ztctiifti    spKm^Haf semes 

Coctf-rf  un«i  cm**  inb  otfw  Katowtf  adtf^ti 
Ptaaw  Sua  (Spaotwi]  Rat  fnfttC  El  e  5§#Ft*w*r 
a*«t  rzx$i  *ft*  j*zxic  c  i  *  a*.  #Sg**j  r 
(SpKkun  ant^s  Flat  fcMMC  EH  OQaSacfc  Pact  i  Rat 
»P1  C  C3^  ^.#  &*ch  Paeii  ?  fW  BPSC  C?*  ^5  a  Bart 
Padh  3  Rat  BnC  £2e  S&  »  B«A  Pach  4  flat  b^4C 
ti«60aaaiAPa£*iH*t«P9Ct2fiW>ea*t*PfcA6 
Rat  Bnc  1 1  i  90  *  Vamir  <  Spa*wt|  R*  W&3C 
El  6  00*  VWmtm  w  |ZW  s  Rat  WSZX  £  i  S  ft) 


MlCROSTATION 

Tt»  compact  way  id  ¥wqa  t  Fioom 
Jorutanraatriciad 


WEAR  **9ffi52Lt  and 
Jc*  out ^^E&E5*D 

Spectra  R£*J*  £**  rt 


r«tCtot»  movurt 

KELWOOD      WIRELESS 
WORKSTATION 

#  Ma**  ON  .'OFF****  *3jcl3wvavkato 
ran*  VSupfttinaauaffy  ■  <M  w*vn  a?#>  *w*y 

•  Cafryinq  Mm***  •  Eaft*f  nored  #  ^unMy 
teal  A«cw*anvnaaaJ«aai 

Itoraamtft  «- ^ata h* 
I  fflpcrea  widusm^i  Sncwr  ni 

HHC  *  *LTa*  Crf  tt^m  kM  «1 


LaaitotLCWrilOO 


*4»w- 


AoQSttS 

BwciiycaYd  h«o 


CHEDITCARD 
HOTLINE  TEL: 
(0709*  63242 
ftam-IOpm 


cxwmmr 


.■H^ . 


iamtundav  f^p*J9  «&  P&P 


9  itoffdBattnpto£3»P 


TOTAL' 
ENCLOSED 


KELWOOD  COMPUTER  CASES  Downs  Flew,  Moorgata  Ftothertiam 


Aff  prices 
include  VAT 


QL  User  appears  each  month 

within  the  pages  of  Your 

Spectrum.  Look  out  too  for  the 

'Complete  Dossier'  edition  —  in 

the  shops  this  July. 


The  difference  between  the 

Z80  and  68008  processors  is 

one  of  philosophy,  contends 

Simon  Goodwin,  and  not  just 

a  matter  of  a  few  extra  bits 


Ever  since  SirCli  vea  n  nounced  the 
launch  of  the  QL  there's  been 
great  fuss  over  the  choice  of  pro- 
cessor for  the  new  machine,  Sin- 
clair Research  advertisements  de- 
scribe the  68008  as  a  "32-bit  pro- 
cessor1, while  journalists  rush  to 
their  fact-sheets  and  deduce  that, 
with  it's  eight-bit  data  bus.  the  pro- 
cessor is  in  fact  little  more  than  an 
inflated  Z80. 

FIRST  THINGS  FIRST 

The  first  microprocessors  were 
designed  in  a  rather  ad  hoc  man- 
ner rather  like  the  first  computer 
programs.  A  few  people  thought 
for  a  while  and  came  up  with  the 
bare  bones  of  design  —  the  inter- 
nal timing  of  instructions,  the  inter- 
face between  processor  and 
memory,  andsome  idea  oft  he'logi- 
cai  operations*  possible —rotating 
values,  adding,  setti ng  bits,  and  so 
on.  Parts  of  the  design  were  built 
up  and  tested  in  hand-made  units, 
each  comprising  of  a  few  hundred 
'building-bfock'  chips. 

Once  the  bare  bones  were  est- 
ablished, the  race  was  on  to  flesh 
them  out  as  much  as  possible.  In 
essence,  the  designers  con- 
sidered each  part  and  tried  to  work 
out  all  of  the  useful  things  that 
could  be  done  with  it.  In  the  pro- 
cess they  added  a  few  registers, 
took  away  an  operation,  and  so  on 
until  the  chip  —  the  slice  of  silicon 
used  as  a  base  for  the  processor— 
was  chock*a*block  with  transis- 
tors Then  they  tested  everything 
and  produced  a  book  listing  the 
instruction  sef  of  the  device;  if 
anything  didn't  work,  they  just 
didn't  mention  it  at  ail1 

This  approach  to  processor 
design  was  appropriate  to  the  first 
micros;  they  were  squashed  on  to 
quitea  small  area  of  silicon,  with  no 
room  for  an  elaborate  design,  The 
resultant  chips  were  hard  work  but 
g  rea  t  f  u  n  to  prog  ra  m.  J  u  st  beca  use 


A  PROCESS  OF 
PHILOSOPHY 


an  instruction  worked  in  one  cir- 
cumstance didn't  mean  it  would 
even  exist  in  the  neat! 

T  he  I  n  te  1 8080  was  t  h  e  f  i  rst  rea  1 1  y 
useful  microprocessor;  then  a 
group  of  people  left  Intel,  cut  a 
bigger  piece  of  silicon  and  came 
up  with  the  Zilog  Z30.  Not  sur- 
prisingly, this  device  turned  out 
very  similar  to  (he 8080  —  in  fact,  it 
would  run  8080  programs  quite 
happily.  Zifog  used  its  extra  silicon 
to  stitch  on  lots  of  extra  in- 
structions. 

The  8080  had  eight-bit  incre- 
ment instructions.  The  company 
added  16-bit  equivalents,  but 
there  wasn't  room  to  make  them 
work,  ie*  exactly  the  same  way  so 
that  the  new  instructions  didn't 
flag'  the  result  of  the  operation 
(zero,  overt  low  or  whatever). 


Zilog  added  about  450  'official4 
instructions  to  the  repertoireof  the 
Z80,  but  in  the  process  it  created 
another  hundred  or  so  unofficial1 
ones  which  were  never  men- 
tioned! A  determined  hacker  can 
uncover  all  sorts  of  oddities,!  ike  an 
"eight-bit  double  and  increment'— 
the  missing  SLL  (shift  left  logical) 
instructions:  CBH  30H  to  CBH 
37 H.  These  form  a  conspicuous 
gap  on  page  1 84  of  the  Spectrum 
manual! 

The  fkst  processors  were  de- 
signed with  hardware  problems  in 
mind  —  there  was  nopointcormng 
up  with  a  super-whizzo  useful  set 
of  instructions  if  they  couldn't  be 
built  mtoa  chip1  In  the  last  ten  years 
these  hardware  problems  have 
eased,  while  software  problems 
have  multiplied, 


43 


OLUSER 


68008  CPU] 


Batoa  CPU 

The  6B00I  is  the  latest  in  a  Sena  of 
eompabWe  processors  with  sum* 
instruction  sets  and  roosters  A  s*t  of 
rte*  register  holds  ite  address? 
&b  memory  being  used  bf  the  program 
and  another  sol  or  data  reputes  ta 
catenating  and  storing  dald  All 
registers  are  32  bits  long  except  ifie 
Sl^tus  renter  wtweft  as  H 

CataJ  lal  poos  are  *me  ^  Ifw 
Arithmetic  Logic  Unit  (ALU?  wfttfi 
stores  3?  bits  of  instructions  at  a  time 
The  Start  Pointer  and  Program  Counter 
keep  I  he  addresses  of  the  areas  of 
mawy  usee)  try  the  ALUlOr  prm^n 
instructions  and  daU  Although  the 
data  and  address  bus  inside  If* 
mcroprocessor  are  32  bits  wide  it* 
68004  transfers  8  data  bits  and  20 
address  bits  at  a  tune  to  the  outside 
world  The  8' on  the  era]  of  the  number 
stands  for  the  mirta-  of  data  bits 
transier  red  ai  i  Time  ui«r  wot*  of 
(tie  same  processor  will  be  aWe  io  use 
a  tun  32  M  data  and  address  bus 
outside  Itw  processor 

n  d  cpu 

The  2d0  is  ^i  wlifidprj  wers*dn  ot  ihe 
8080  which  includes  a  more  versa!  lie 
instruction  set  and  a  spare  set  ot  its 
manor  registers  All  the  registers  are  1 6 
Ms  tang  except  for  the  Atcumutator 
wft<h  rs  a  tuts  long  (The  0|her  8  tuts 
are  used  for  i  he  Status  regaler  I 

ind  ly  are  used  as  index  registers 
to  taMes  The  Start  P&mter  and 
Procjam  renters  how  me  addresses 

used  by  the  ALU  as  its  program  and 
data  stores  The/flG  isumque 
a^o  has  an  Inicrvupl  register  ol  8  bits 
|l)  and  a  Refresh  register  (ft)  The 
interrupt  register  Wds  the  top  8  bus  ot 
an  interrupt  address  and  the  lower  6 
bits  as  suppi  w  tjy  the  devce  The 
Heir csti  register  county  the  number  of 
tunes  a  selected  ROM  is  refreshed  and 
eliminates  yet  another  external  chip 


f 


itllttt  liflSTMS 


tlTIIEUITEH 


QLUSER 


I 
> 

m 

I 

* 


Z80CPU 


MfrftEtf 


PROGRAMMING 
PHILOSOPHY 

The  280  was  designed  specifically 
for  ease  of  wiring  up.  The  68000, 
on  the  olher  hand,  was  ap- 
proached from  the  point  of  view  of 
programming  simplicity;  part  of 
this  ease  stems  from  the  fact  that 
you  don't  have  to  Ih  row  away  your 
programs  when  you  move  from 
one  modem  processor  to  a 
cheaper  or  faster  one. 

Motorola  designed  a  range  of 
processors,  rather  than  a  one-off. 
The  original  68000  has  spawned  a 
number  of  versions  with  differing 
hardware  requirements  (including 
the  so-called  'eighl-bit'  68008  and 
the  132-biti  68032)  —  but  they  can 
all  run  exactly  the  same  software, 
This  is  what  Sinclair  Research  is 
trying  to  say  when  it  calls  the  Ot. 
■future-proof. 

On  a  ZSO,  every  register  has  its 
idiosyncractes;  only  theC  register 
can  be  used  to  address  ports,  only 
the  B  register  can  be  used  in  fast 
loops1  only  IX  and  IY  can  have  an 
index,  and  so  on  With  the  68000 
series,  however,  sets  of  registers 
work  identically;  each  can  be  for 
exa  mple,  an  index  register  a  stack 
pointer  or  a  counter  —  the  same 
instructions  are  available  regard- 
less of  the  register  chosen.  The 
data  registers  of  the  68000  family 
are  all  3f?  bits  long,  regardless  of 
the  way  that  data  is  passed  back 
and  forth  between  processor  and 
memory  (although  this  varies  bet- 
ween members  of  the  "family'). 

This  consistency  makes  it  easy 
to  learn  the  68000  instruction  set; 


you  don't  have  to  cope  with  all  the 
quirks  of  the  Z80.  The  symmetry 
also  makes  il  easy  to  fix  bugs,  alter 
programs  and  write  compilers  — 
it's  much  more  difficult  to  write  a 
good  280  co  m  pi  le  r  bee  a  u  se  of  t  h  e 
vas!  range  of  special  cases  which 
must  be  allowed  for  before  there's 
any  chance  of  producing  the  best 
code. 

A  good  compiler  for  the  68000 
can  produce  code  —  from  a  high- 
level  language  such  as'C  —  which 
is  very  nearly  as  efficient  as  hand- 
written code,  That's  how  QDOS 
and  the  most  popular  68000 
operating  system,  UNIX,  can  be 
written  almost  entirely  with  a  com* 
piler  rather  than  an  assembler. 
Compiled  programs  are  much 
easier  to  write  and  test  than 
assembled  ones. 

COMPLEX 
INSTRUCTIONS 

In  theory,  a  1 6-bit  micro  is  twice  as 
powerful  as  an  eight-bit  machine 
—  it  can  process  twice  as  much 
information  in  a  single  step.  In 
practice,  though,  the  difference  is 
usually  much  greater,  because 
intermediate  steps  are  usually 
needed  to  convert  two  eight-bit 
answers  into  a  1 6-bit  result.  The 
66008  produces  the  1 6~bit  result 
immediately. 

The  68008  incorporates  com- 
plea  instructions  which  do  in  one 
step  what  for  a  simpler  processor 
would  take  many.  For  instance,  the 
68008  can  perform  32-bit  multi- 
plication and  division  in  a  Single 
and  fast  step.  The  equivalent  pro- 

45 


cess  would  take  well  over  a  hun- 
dred steps  on  a  280,  The  68008 
doesn't  sacrifice  flexibility  by 
using  its  32-bit  registers  —  each 
instruction  can  be  used  in  a  32-, 
16-  or  the  more  concise  eight-bit 
form. 

PIPELINE 
PERFORMANCE 

Another  big  difference  between  the 
68000  family  and  the  280  lies  in 
the  way  the  68000  reads  values 
from  memory.  The  68000.  like  the 
humble  6502,  uses  a  technique 
called  'pipelining  A  processor 
works  by  fetching  instructions, 
decoding  them  and  then  perform- 
ing the  appropriate  actions, 
Whereas  the  Z80  performs  these 
three  actions  one-by-one,  the 
68000  uses  a  completely 
separate  unit  to  read  instructions 
so  that  it  can  get  on  with  reading 
the  next  few  instruct  ions  white  the 
rest  of  the  processor  is  working  out 
what  the  last  one  meant. 

The  68008  has  often  been 
criticised  because  it  reads  and 
writes  data  in  small  eight*bit  sec- 
tions; a  'true'  16-bit  processor 
would  use  larger  lumps  But  the  dif- 
ference in  performance  between 
66000  and  68008  is  much  less 
marked  than  you  might  expect 
because  the  pipeline  allows  the 
processor  to  get  on  with  fetching 
the  data  piecemeal  while  the  in- 
struction is  being  decoded,  So,  by 
the  time  the  data  is  needed,  it's 
usually  in  the  pipeline  and  the 
6800S  doesn't  have  to  wait  for  it  to 
be  fetched,  eight- bits  at  a  time. 


NEW-4QL 


Stand  G1 5 


WE  ARE  SOLE  UK  DISTRIBUTORS  OF 
THE  BROTHER  4LJL  PRINTER 


m 


You  are  invited 

to  reserve  a  4QL  system 

for  your  computer.  Send  for  details 


NEW-  CRRTRIDGE  TIOV 


40l_  Printer 

43L.  Ulan  i  tars 

4QL.  Terminal 

4QL  Cartridge  Tidtj 

4QL-  5  aft  ware 

4QL-  Link 

4QL  [Tladem 

EXCLUSIVE  SYSTEMS 

4  YOUR  m 

inclair 


Htofcft  16  Micradriva  cartrtd?** 

Interlocking  dutign  tutura  allows 

tor  future  tAptmion  of  your  filing  tvittm 


Quantum  Leap  Syst 


(Qtvi  Ctrtrkfflu  Trd/i,  Dzx  Dol,  |  ftrtr/MrVMiss  1     [     I     ]     l     l     l    I     [    I    I     L    1     1    J    l 


Pi****  Hftd  rtw 

■r  £6  99  etch,  induiivt. 

I  endow?  a  ch**que  ipr  £ 

Mill*  ch«qu#»  pjy*bl*  fa 

Ouinium  L«ip  Svitetni,  4QL  Hqu-W,  68  Fojcwood  Clout,  FtlthMfi,    i  I      I      1      I      I      I      I      I      I      I      I      I      I      I      I      I 


|*M«*       I      1      I      1      I      I      I      I      I      I      I      I      I      I      I      1      I      I     I 


MkJok.  TW13  70  L 

JtnrtlJff  <t  ft  r*fliHftf#d  c 


T*k  01*44  1399 


PMBrch  LtiJ 


lit i    i    i    i 


QL  USER 


QLGETSA 
SOFT  SPOT 
FOR THE 
SPECCY 

An  emulator  program  for  the 
Sine  fair  Research  QL  is 
currently  being  written  by 
Manchester  computer 
company.  Joe  The  Uonp 
enabling  owners  of  the 
mythical  wonder  machine  to 
run  the  full  gamut  of 
Spectrum  software  It  I!  come 

a  cassette  interlace  to 
allow  the  use  r  to  save  QL 
programs  to  tape  —  a 
cheaper  alternative  to  the 
relatively  expensive 
Microdrive  cartridges.  But 
how  is  JTL  managing  to 
produce  such  a  package 
when  ihere  aren't  any  GLs 
available? 

Well,  spokesman 
Lawrence  Holt  reports  that  a 
learn  of  programmers 
involved  in  the  project  are 
"working  mostly  on  paper", 
which  seems  to  suggest  that 
a  certain  amount  of  testing 
has  actually  taken  place.  Bui 
Mr  Holt  would  neither 
confirm  nor  deny  l his,  saying 
only  that  he  didnl  possess  a 
QL  However,  he  did  imply 
that  it  wasn't  beyond  the 
bounds  o<  possibility  that  he 
might  have  access  to  one 
C 25  all  in.  the  likelihood  is  it'll 
be  m  great  demand. 
Enquiries  lo  JTL  telephone 
061  3667431. 

RUMOURS- 
VILLE 

Our  spies  report  a  couple  of 
rumours  Currently 

circulating  First-  a 
spokesman trqm  a  Midlands 
computer  com  pa  ny  tells  us 
thaT  a   private  individual  in 
the  Birmingham  area"  is  now 
the  proud  owner  of  one  of 
Sinclair  Research's  new 
machines,  and  that  this  lucky 
laddie  has  been  a  Mowing  a 
certain  local  manufacturer  to 
work  on  the  machine  from 
tirntMo-tlme  —  giving  a 
d  ist  i  r>c  I  c  om  mercial 
advantage  over  the  rest 

The  same  source 
continued  his  revelations  by 
disclosing  that  a  cfose 
friend'  employed  on  the  QL 
project  is  claiming  that  plenty 
of  the  machines  have  been 
built  and  that  they're  ju$t 
waiting  for  the  ROMs  to  be 
completed  and  as  soon  as 


SINCLAIRWATCH 


TSKM.Hr... 


official  delivery  dale  had 
been  ihe  end  erf  Apf  ir.  bui 


faster  man  the  projected 


BVGUTCRSNfPE 


good  word  for  Sinclair 


you'll  fimfthem  in 


P[^- deftly  because  so 


r ,he  "^customers  had"        -SlS^l! l***J>»*  ** 


later,  at  the  beginnino oflKl      k  V°U  d0  marl  0r(Jer  ~ 


fore  No 


?2  m  ^^"^  man  ©aisttnq 
products  costing  up  to 


hundred  at  the  most 


KS3KSCV'    SHrP>"   *WT  THE  PRICE 

raasaai  SaT-rr  ~k££ 

-h«     NEW flDS  FOR  OLD  ^^tZ'^Z 

pno  ™"W"s««re  given  out  in 


an  order 


«*  The  price  for  the  RS232 


theOi.  Microdrivea  £49  95 


manual,  ^id  hpflfiSd"  JSTfP??1^  «•  *"flMT 


are  supplied,  the  first  cua- 


aii  about  Super  Basic  or 


feasor 


page  containing T  he  pin  out       SR 0tW PreSS  iYS  ***** 
for  the  monitor^  So° ?       IS!^!??^"-*  Th*V 


saemed  to chunamSL^         con'°™i  wry  weif  to  the 

■a'moer    __ongmai  spec,  and  ever  since 


.«.  w,ou  wim  another  order 

2'  "fl95tor  the  'drives.  You 
?5i_® 'mpf*Mj™  'nat  .f  yQy 


it  if  you 

'yourorder,tirieesa 
tenner  for  the  privilege 


this  ha* been  done,  thyyii  be 

plugged  in  and  the 

com  pi  el  yd  units  despatched 

alio!  which  sounds 
reasonable  vnouyh 

4YOURQI 

Une  of  Ifie  on  going  niggles 
aboul  the  QL  is  that  it  can't 
really  be  stuHed  in  a  bfWCfcSA 
So.     Qua  n  tu  m  L  eap  Sy st  I 
has  racked  its  corporate 
brain  and  come  up  with  a 
Ihing  called  the  4QL  Sys*> 
Its  a  terminal  that's 
specifically  aimed  at  the 
executive  and  professional 
user,  and  il  comes  in  a  smart 
black  unit  reflecting  the 
design  of  Ihe  QL  It  can  be 
used  either  as  a  desk- lop 
peripheral  ba^-  arrylng 

for  the  QL  and  Its 


acctts&oft&s 

Incorporated  in  thetlash 
design  is  Moragator  up  to  30 
M  uj  yd  five  cartridges  and  it 
open*  uut  lo  provide  a 
monitor  base  with  three 
stoi  age  com  ipaiiments  — 
one  for  the  QL  when  not  in 
use,  one  to*  the  cartridges 
( wh  hj  h  ha  5  a  d  r  a  we  r  act  ion) 
and  one  fot  Ihe  power  unit 
and  rabies 

To  match  up  with  the4QL> 
Quantum  Leap  Systems  is 
ateo  otfennga  matching 
blak,k  Brother  HR5  printer 
m  id  two  1 JMrtcfl  monochrome 
or  RGB  monitors  m  black 
cabinets  If  you  still  need  lo 
be  further  convinced,  the 
4QL  system  will  apparently 
be  on  display  at  I 

..puter  Fair  at  Earls  Court, 


Mr  H  Had  id.  the  Director  of 
the  company  wilt  be  on  hand 
to  answer  she  diff  icuh 
questions  As  for  prices,  he 
said,  "We  haven't  decided  on 
thai  yet  -  because  we  don't 
Know  whether  well  be  selling 
it  as  a  complete  package  or 
as  separates  Anyway,  lull 
details  will  be  available  on 
the  day" 

However,  life's  not  a  If 
about  waiting  For  even  now 
you  can  purchase  a 
Microdrive  Tidy  from 
Quantum  Leap  Systems. 
This  version  holds  16 
Microdrive  cartridges  and  is 
priced  at  L6  99  (including 
VAT  and  postage},  You  can 
mail  order  il  from  QLS  at  68 
Fyawood  Cfose.  Fell  ham, 
Middlesex  TW1 3  1 01 


47 


\1 


64-Page  Upgrade 
For  The  QL 
Available  Soon! 


From  our  Computing 
Correspondent 


«vrui 


*£ 


Pot  a  microcomputer  that  s  only 
now  Planing  to  filler  through  lo  cus- 
tomer Sir  Clive  Sinclair's  latest 
brainchild,  the  QL  has  certainly 
managed  to  scoop  up  its  share  of 
editorial  comment  in  the  computing 
press,  But  where,  one  wonders,  do 
they  manage  to  get  information  from 
m  ■  situation  like  this?  With  ao  lew 
QL  Computers  available,  maga/me 
staff  must  have  been  1  earing  their 
hair  out  wondering  where  to  look 
next 

And  yet,  somehow,  the  publishers 
of  one  of  Britain* &  leading  micro 
magazines.   Your  Spectrum*  have 
done  just  that  QL  f  'w  r  —  the  Com 
ptettDasswrh  what  its  editor  Bruce 
Sawfofd    calls    "a    64- page,    no 
punches -putted,    appraisal   uf   the 
o  everyone's  talking  about 
Tracked  down  to  his  West  End 
editorial  offices*  amoungst  an  im- 
pressive array  of  computing  equip 
ment  (including  two  of  the  much 
coveted  QLi)  we  found  Bruce,  who 
proudly  claims  " This  will  be  the  one 
you've   all    been   waiting   for   — 
whether  you're  a  QL  owner  orjus! 
thinking  about  it.  We're  not  looking 
to  add  to   the   criticisms   of  the 
machine,  wc  just  want  to  give  the 
public  what  they  should  have  had 
from  the  beginning      the  complete 
story". 


Complete  with  elating  tests  of 
the  hardware,  evaluations  of  the  foui 
Psion  software  packages,  the  latest 
detail*   on    the    modestly   entitled 
Super  Baste,  programs  and  newt, 
QL  User  —  the  C&mpfete  Da* 
has  tapped  the  major  computing 
journalistic  talent  in  the  UK  to  pro 
duce  a  unique  look  at  an  innovative 
product.  Following  on  from  the  sue 
ccssfui  Spectrum  computer,  there 
are  many  looking  in  see  where  Sir 
Clive  is  bokJJy  going  ,  ,    and  this 
could  be  where  they'll  find  it 

Without  question,  the  Q]  must  be 
one  of  the  most  rumoured  of  mac- 
hines ever  launched,  but.  iklds  Bruce 
Sawftiffd  "This  magazine  is  not  a 
rumour;  w  hen  we  say  it  will  fa  a\  i£l 
able  on  the  high  street  street  shelves 
within  28  days,  mi  mean  it!". 


during 
purch, 
opmtr 
On 
h<  *u*e 
Ictte* 
and 
their 
final 

he  I 
elect  j 
Ntt 
mana 
the  o 
sive  [ 
third  p 
has  jfi 

visitor, 
a  wild 
The 


eon 
gnir 
hop 


Mop.:.:.'...---rr:n 


f€l0^^J^^ 


rnstotac^ 


ton** 


conv 


A  second 
chain  is  f 
*>r  Prisr 

lir 


co\ 


tesoi 


Inge 
UK 


i  Yes.  1  **" 

a  fVUouo^ 

5  tfife***"VoLtJser^  Place* 
■  Dossier, » 


^aii*c 


jsico 


dc 


In  order  to  overcome  the  software  problems  of  attaching  a  'grown-up '  printer  to  yourSpeccy, 
Dilwyn  Jones  sorts  out  how  you  can  produce  the  full  character  set  on  such  diverse  printers  as 

the  Star  Gemini  1 0X  and  the  Epson  FX80. 


STAR  GEMINI  OUTPUT 

The  chiricttr  ■«{  produced  en  The 

Star  Gemini  10X. 

*    *  a  a  *  *  *    !>•*,-,   / 

013345*7   8*1     l<~>? 

taUCDEFfeM    1    JKLNNO 

PflR*TUVMIYXl\J*_ 

iitcdtfgfti    |  1  t  i  II  o 

p    q    r    *    t    u    ¥    m    m    -r    t    1     1    1    *   ■ 

*  •    *    A    i  %  ^   >    j«  ■    e  -  *   k   ■ 

AUCDEF&H]     J    »     L    H   N   Q   F» 

g   H   8    T    u  NNO    E98CEV0   Pt    FN      PDlN 

T      fCfWEM*      ATTR      AT       TAB      VAL* 

CODE      VAL      LEW      SIN      COS      TAW 

ASM       ACS       ATM       LH       UP        INT        3W 

SM      AAS      PEEK       IN      U5R      SIR* 

Mt      MIT       BIN          Oft          ANO       <-     > 

-    O      LINE         THEN         TO         STEP 

DCF    FN         CAT          FQftHAT          "ClME          E 

HUE         OPEN    •      CLOSE    #      MERGE 

VER1FV         KIP         CIRCLE         1HK         P 

APEIH          FLASH         &ftf&MT           INVERSE 

OVEfi         OUT          LPfUNT          LLIST 

STEP*         K£AO         OAT  A         RfcSfQftE         N 

EH         BORDER         CONTENLE          Dirt         Ft 

EN         FOR         GO  tO        GO   8U8         tNf»U 

T         LOAD         LIST         LET          PAUSE 

NEXT          POKE          P*|NT          PLOT          KIM 

twWC          RANOOltfE          IF          LLb 

DRAM         CLEM         HfTlf*         COPY 

Even  though  the  character  codes  of 
many  printers  are  different  la  those  of 
the  Spectrum,  iips  still  often  possible 
to  hard  copy  the  entire  Speccy  let 
Taking  the  Gemini  10X  printer,  first 
load  the  tape  supplied  with  the  inter- 
face, then  make  the  following  changes 
(as  directed  by  that  tape)  and  you'll 
find  that  the  primer  wiJJ  be  able  to 
correctly  print  the  entire  character  set 
and  listings  in  the  Spectrum's  32- 
character  screen  format.  The  changes 
to  make  are  as  follows: 


Hi* 
Wilt 


Now  modify  the  character  codes  for 
these  characters  when  prompted: 


(ifimwl 
E    (pni.il|i) 
(     (i trticil  htf| 
°  Ictpf  rt|lt  syflitlj 


chiB|tti  1G4 

chi|e  li  1 95 
c)iii|e  li  245 
chii|i  t«  203 


STAR  GEMINI  SOFTWARE 

Tit*  ftaale  program  which  tali  tH#  Star  G  a  mint' »  faciNHa* «nd  loadi  Ilia  fnachfna 

coda- 


4*< 


CLCA* 

NT       FLASH    1:*    PIh»    **i 


•  Pi 

2M 


'titntflUt-  i  EM     It 


7*   LDAO    -&rintccPCf»-CllDC    M.^, 


TO 

Km 

us 

140 

i*a 
vm 


CL£ 

&>\QHl      1   .  «     lt- 

WInt  us*  ui5« 

p-fm  gat   valiiaa  to  a*n 

l*  a~i 

RESTORE 

ftFAB    b/tf 

IF    &vtv«.  I      THtftl       LHMN 

L*ftl*i?    CHft*  •    bvt»i 


ZM 


£5a) 

"an 

t9V 


GO    TO    19» 

lata   tp  aat   up  orintar 
REM    r  #*«•  t    Of  l  n  t  •*■ 

MTA    ;/,m 

Pt'n    iUp    qv«f    qw  f  or  nt  i  on 

MH    lor    ^e    hnn/o*Qv 

MTft    27*716*16 

REM    Lvft    *Aroui*^»   ehwi 

B*TV>  ,  .*» 

REM  right   a*rgin*5i    ettara 

fl£n    tlina   iwngt*-*-   crtar«i 

DATA    37 . 0 1 r 

<-i«i[ili  «*»**<]    print 
DATA    ?7.6<? 

-#l*ct    USA  ch«riLt#r 
REM  **i .    cttaractar    25*h4BF> 
DATA  77,S3.t 
RUM    %lqn*l    and    a*    (J*t  * 
DATA 


Ui«r- defined  graphics  A  to  II 

Changetheci>de^ofi5(A)upio85(U) 
so  that  user-defined  graphics  come  out 
as  upper  case  letters  (as  In  their  unde 
fined  state  on  the  Spectrum)  father  than 
lower  case  letters. 

Block  graphics  Fortunately,  the 
Gemini  I  OX  comes  with  Spectrum 
style  block  graphics  in  its  standard 
c  haracte  r  se* .  but  t  he  code  i  are  d  i  ffe  r  c  nt 
to  those  of  the  Spectrum,  You  need  to 
make  the  following  changes: 


min«  ckiricttri  fit  Hit  (10]?     32 
Icidi  lir  hacktpact  (127)?      % 


Spectrum  cirfe 

Printer  code 

32 

29 

227 

30 

225 

31 

231 

3? 

226 

23 

2M 

34 

229 

J5 

236 

36 

226 

37 

230 

38 

233 

39 

33ft 

40 

23? 

231 

42 

23? 

43 

23ft 

Mewline  characters  Youll  be 
anked  how  many  codes  -  combina- 
tions of  carriage  ret  urn  (CHRS  1  3),  line 
feed  (CHR$  10),  and  vertical  tab 
(CHRS  II)  —  the  printer  needs  This 
depends  on  how  the  little  dip  switches, 
visible  on  the  back  of  the  printer*  are  set 
up,  Look  at  the  switch  marked  '4*  —  if 

iron  set  it  to  *on*  then  a  line  feed  is  per- 
brmed  automatically  for  every  carriage 
return  code  received  by  the  printer.  It's 
up  to  you  which  to  use  —  if  it's  *m  reply 
I  to  the  query*  and  if  if  s  *©flf\  reply  "2 
For  *  1  *  enter  *  1 3'  as  the  code  number*; 
for^enicr'iyand'lO*. 
You've  now  completed  this  part  of 


49 


TO  PRINTERS 


the  software  arid  you  should  save  it  on 
tape  as  described  in  the  instructions 
Now1  type  NEW  to  get  rid  of  the  Bamc 
port,  but  do  not  switch  off  or  do  anything 
to  erase  the  machine  code  in  memory. 

Now  you  have  to  enter  the  short  Basic 
program  which  sets  up  several  printer 
facilities  and  loads  the  machine  code. 

Having  carefully  checked  that  all 
numbers  are  correct,  type  GO  TO  1 90, 
which  will  make  as  many  copies  of  the 
software  a*  you  require'  The  program 
will  auto- RUN  on  loading,  ft  would  of 
course  be  very  naughty  m  break  copy- 
right iaw  by  making  unauthorised 
copies  of  the  Kempston  machine  code 
software. 

When  you  type  NEW,  Stream  3  is 
reset  to  its  default  stale  to  drive  the  ZX 
Printer.  This  is  why  you're  told  to  use 
the  RANDOMISE  USR command  to 
reinstate  the  primer  driver  software  — 
$o  it's  included  here  along  with  the 
POKE  that  sets,  up  the  keyboard  bleep 
(that  I  find  so  indispensable). 

When  you  run  the  program  you  may 
find  that  some  of  the  characters  are 
slightly  different  to  those  on  the  Spec- 
trum; for  instance,  the  zero  is  not 
stashed,  although  there  is  enough  dif- 
ference between  *Q%  arrd  *0*  to  avoid 
confusion.  The  pound  symbol  looks 
rather  weird  but  ifs  still  a  genuine 
pound  sign,  and  the  copyright  symbol 
appears  distinctly  squashed.  That, 
howe vc  r ,  is  a  smalt  pri  cc  to  pay  for  he  ing 
able  to  print  out  the  entire  Spectrum 
character  set  on  a  printer  of  this  price. 

Those  who  art  familiar  with  the 
Gemini  10X  may  ask  why  I've  not 
made  use  of  the  "download  character 
set'  facility  The  answer  is  that  only 
character  codes  32  to  26  may  be  re 
defined  in  this  mode  and  the  other 
character  codes  above  26  cannot  be 
used  and  are  primed  as  spaces.  Not  all 
the  character  set  can  be  squeezed  into 
the  'download  RAMT  area. 

Note  that  the  Kempston  software, 
like  most  others  (including  the  ZX 
Interface  1  L  prints  an  eatra  space  be- 
tween THEN  and  any  following  key- 
word —  it's  quite  normal  and  there's 
nothing  yo  can  do  about  it 

Next  we'll  consider  the  case  of  the 
Epson  FX80,  which  in  its  standard 
state  is  not  capable  of  printing  alt  of  the 
Spectrum  character  set:  it  does,  how- 
ever, have  full  'download  character  vet' 
capabilities  so  a  suitable  set  may  be 
defined  for  use  with  ihe  Spectrum.  This 
has  to  be  loaded  into  the  FX 80  every 
time  it's  switched  on.  As  before,  load 
the  Kempston  tape  and  make  the 
following  changes: 


Hf«  «if  diimtirt  fit  hit  (iDf?    3Z 
WhtUMt  fir  hickipict  (I27|?    "ft" 

Now  modify  this  character  code  when 
prompted: 


®  |ciPrnghi  lymlill 


cfatnfili  144 


notice  the  block  graphics  are  different 
—  personally  I  prefer  them  to  be  that 
way  since  this  leads  to  less  of  a  confu- 
sion on  listing. 

To  alter  them  you'll  need  to  change 
tines  470  to  6  20  of  the  Basic  program  as 
shown  in  the  FX80  printer  manual.  D* 


User-defined  graphic  a  A  to  U 

Change  the  codes  to  1 93  (A.. I  up  to  2 1 3 
(U>  so  that  user  defined  graphics  are 
printed  as  uppercase  ital  ic  letters  ( user  • 
defined  graphics  similarly  appear  as 
capital  letters  in  their  undefined  state  on 
the  Spectrum). 

Block  graphics  These  are  catered 
for  by  re  -de  fining  the  pri  nte  r'  s  character 
set  in  the  Basic  program  that  follows. 
Newline  characters  As  before, 
depending  on  how 
you  want  the  dip  switches  to  be  set  up 
Mine  is  arranged  that  only  one  code  be 
sent  to  the  printer,  a  CHRS  13, 

Now  enter  the  Basic  program  which 
sets  up  the  printer  every  time  you  want 
to  use  it, 

After  carefully  checking  that  all  the 
many  numbers  are  correct,  type  GO 
TO  1 90  which  *  ill  save  the  software  to 
tape  until  you  press  the  Break  key.  The 
program  will  now  autoRUN  when  you 
load  ii  back  into  the  computer.  I've 
included  a  sample  printout  of  the 
character  $et  from  the  printer.  You'll 


EPSON  OUTPUT 

Tho  character  **i  produced  on  the 
fptoii  FJteo. 


■    17343*    7    09«     |' 

•  AltVEFOHnUHl 
PaiSTtlVMKYl  f 

C  A   b   c    If   v    #    q    rv    i     J    I     1    *   ( 
n    O r    %    1    y    v   m  f   m    t     I    I  | 

-  fiymiuiDiQin 
e  #  s  r  «  icno  ii*  rv*  *i  « 

T       SCREEN*      *TTH      AT       r*0      V*AL* 

con    mpl    urn    sin    cob    iw 

ASM      AL  t*P       INI       9QR 

ii      AK  IN      U?5I 

CHTft       NOT        FUN  Oil 

LINE  TMHN 

ff*         CAT         iORftfkf 
CLL 

BRIGHT 

LfVINT 
DATA         ft£STORE     H 
CONTINUE         UW         i- 

60  ro   eo  eua   infu 

L 1ST    LET    PAUSE 


Q«*  ■ 

«PIFY  I 

A*€*         FLASH 
OVEP         QUI 
STOP         READ 

■M  WJRWR 

EH         fQR 
1         LOW* 


*iT         It*  |  rftlNt         PLOT         mfh 

SAVE  P*Af»OGftf/£  [1% 

D*Afc#         OXJW  RETURN         COP* 


EPSON  SOFTWARE 

Tt*o  Bft*ic  prog  rum  which  toll  up  In*  Epson  FXB0+*  fBckllliomiind  loads  in* 
machine  codft.  ft*  in  f  h»  St«r  Oomini  ■  otf*Mr*\  you  can  SAVE  th*  program 
uiing  the  commnnf  CO  TO  1  90  —  both  program*  will  nutoHUH  wh#n 
r*-L0AD*d. 


10 

m 


rrJr 


ETOI 


PEN  >p**lqn    OUT  ill  #1 

fitN    mitruff    */%<$    *ottn«rp 

^JHi    REM   bl  hp 
CLtM 
PAINT      FLASH    It*    Ntou    mi 

LOAD    "onntctido^CClOE   M71A, 

PRINT        Crt4  ||j(Ht     Ii     FLASH    1 1  ■" 

t,h#    tftOO     » 

PR  I  HIT  ~M 

r-E"  M   q-n  *    >■  ft  |  u*«    t  a    *fnd    I  n 

l«    #,  1 

to 
IF     bvt»-0,  t     tfCN       LPfitHT 

-a*  cHRt  ?7tCMR*  bvtfti 

ro    ISO 
SAVE    "EPfiON-    LIME    4* 
SAVC    a,brinlcoit*HCDK    64 

tn  m  140 

fca   mot   uti   priritftr 

F-EP1    r-«*j«t     (If  iMtif 
DATA    ?7*fr4 

REn   *lip    Dvif    p«r  lorftt  ion 
4- or     M     I  lf»V*i/p*Qft 

pfifA    Z7,?fl,L* 

I  •!  I    *«tain*Lt  chifi 
DATA    Z7,IBB,1?B 

ftihDh**i  *«cl   p#  . 
DATA    77-0* 

uov  RCM  CO  font m 
*T  *i  IflrtO  #OHrnla«d  WL 
DATA    -7,W,0,i.B 

*    ftOloct    doMnSoftd    Ht 
DATA   2r,37.l9i 

-   ftftloct    ASCII     120   to    J 51? 
REM  and  AfH  an 

4Clpri 
DATA    2?*M 
ROl  dftt«i£h«r«ct*r  .ftltr  iput 


»«PAtl  »r  riP  If) 

*?*    DATA 

Ta*3ftfa,^r-*tt,  ih.n.rt 

4    *    DATA    ^/T^I/^/M.ji,!)^,!!, 

.'-■",-  *»*« 

444*  .  *■  ^,M 

,a»l57,  ITS.  ,  Itl2f*^ 

I    MTA    ?7KTflt||l  t.l^.a, 

ei,eva,B.  [r^.d.o.0,«f*i 

*&*,  J53»  164 . 1 2* ,  IM .  *a»,  1+4 »l» | 

bR 
«m  PAT  A   77v3a««4  **lt«,#. 

4CNI   MTA   ;?*jal0.l.'*f,12<it,l'tf,» 
9,#vt34t«tlM,a.34lf«*»tf«,39S 

4Vfl    flATA    M  ru  'l+.a,  I  V.I  ''.*»!  3tt+.*2 
4I,0.1'4I,0,I7^.P.  1.^,  0, 

%tf^l    1 f 1  "1 . 1 

.".     4  E  .0,74  1  ,R,  74  I  ,0, 
SIO   DA 
5#P.  t^,l4  1^»  ,PPMM.l  4  M, 
S2»   DATA 

9v*fi2*t«.inf*it2 

J    DATA   2/,lfl.a. I    fl.  t-4.  | T 
^.H,l'4i  fa,7#i  .P.  I43f*^l4 
*UO   DATA   ??*».•. 

%o,;-4i ,«,?«!  la.n^jtTK.a. 

^50    DATA    P/.^.l.l^,!^ 
I    DATA    2/..^a.«. 

si*  data  2rtsa4ati^  ft, re 

■fflft    DATA    77l%a.B. 

»,a*?»*ai.»5taft24iva.,4-  .^.as 

W«  PAIA   77,35*0,  140,14a.! 

^Ba.t43.a1i43,o,i4i1a.i4i.a, 

MM  DATA   274Saf#,t41.l4l.l 

^ia  data  ?*timw* 
^ , a , 7^3. a . 7»*ai  1 4 T. ,*»  j 4 : ,o . 

ft  J*    l>-i  I.V,  3  4 

I  f-rn  *ioti«i    m 
Ma  data  a. i 


I 


50 


Sinclair  ZX  Microdrives  and 


ZX  Interface  1 


'  I  *'.  M     'i 


IW 


The  affodable  alternative 


■ 


M1V 


MM 


£" 


a 


...in  the  shops,  now! 


The  unique  ZX  Microdrive  system  sets  the 
ZX  Spectrum  apart  from  alt  othef  computer  systems. 

At  a  fraction  of  the  cost  of  floppy  discs*  rt  pvfi 
fast  access  to  S5K  of  prog?  am  a  nd  data  on  M  »ao 
drive  cartridges  And  it  opens  up  everting  posy  bitibei 
through  an  RS232  interface  and  local  area  network 

ZX  Microdrives  -  the  fast  way  to  save  or 
bad  S5K  of  program  and  data  £49.95 

ZX  Mcrodnves  are  controlled  by  ZX  Interlace  1 

For  theff  compact  yze  the/ re  massively  power- 
ful Each  interchangeable  Microdrive  cartridge  stores 
at  least  85K  of  prcgiam  a  rid  data* 

>tou  can  create  up  to  50  files  on  the  cartridge  - 
identified  by  titles  of  your  own  choice. 

And  when  you  win!  to  display  the  data  again, 
M  icr od  n  ves  grve  you  lightning  fast  access 

•  Just  35  seconds  to  access  a  typical  file 

•  Only  9  second*  to  LOAD  a  typical  4SK  program 

S(  Microdrive*  use  the  SpiitruiTi's  own  power 
supply 

"tijur  first  Microdrive  ts  connected  to  interface  1 
by  a  Microdrive  lead  Then  up  to  7  more  Micro- 
dnves  can  be  added  u^ng  Microdrive  connectors 
That  give*  you  a  minimum  of  6S0K  bytes  of 
on-line  capacity 

With  memory  tike  that  the  possibility  are 
limitless  -  stock  control,  word  process  rift  even  huge 
adventure  games' 

With  each  Mtcrodnve,  you'tt  recede  a  Mjgfd- 
drcve  connector  and  Microdrive  demonstration 


carifrrfRf r  Blank  MKrodrrue  cartridges  tost  1495 
each  They  jre  available  m packs  of  4  (with  a  free 
outfidge  waHet)  or  untfy. 

ZX  Interface  1  -  the  multi-purpose 
controller.  £49.95 

2X  Interface  1  is  a  multipurpose  dewe  It  controls 
up  to  8  Microdnvcs  A™j  it  adds  filehandNiTg  and 
communication  facilities  to  your  Spectrum 

So  m  one  low-priced  unrt,  you  also  gel  these 
two  built-in  features 

•  RS232  inleHac*  This  industry  standard  interface 
allows  you  to  link  your  Spectrum  with  fuitatze 
printers  communicate  with  other  computes 
employvng  RS  232.  and  transmit  data  over  telephone 
tones  via  modern 

•  The  ZX  Net  Now  you  and  your  friends  can 
transfer  pro-ams  and  data  on  a  local  area  network  - 
or  even  play  computer  games  together 

The  ZX  ls*et  makes  it  easy,  and  fasti 

It  Jmki  between  2  and  €A  Spectrum^  trans- 
mittmg  at  10,000  characters  per  second  (So  a  full 
screen  is  transfer  red  in  around  3  seconds!)  With  the 
ZX  Net  only  one  person  need  type  m  a  pro-am  And 
a  Microdrive  or  printer  can  be  shared  by  everyone  m 
the  network* 

ZX  Interface  1  offers  you  all  these  taciliUes.  and 
retains  the  same  peripheral  port  as  the  Spectrum 
itseW 

With  each  ZX  Interface  t  you'll  recervea 
connecting  lead  for  the  first  Miaodrtvc,  a  ZX  Net 


lead  with  jack  plugs  plus  a  comprehemnv  manual 

An  RS212  lead  n  avaitabk  as  an  optional 
erfnrt£M95 

Available  from:  ta  rger  bra  rxhes  o(  Boots*  WH  Smith 
Computer  Stockists  «  Greens  Computer  Centres  # 
Spectrum  Computef  Stores*  and  laqpr  branches  of 
John  Men/ies  •  Dixorn  *  Lasfeys  *  Currys  •  John 
Lewis  fertnership  *  fcumbetows  •  British  Home 
Stores  *  House  of  f  raser  and  many  other  good 
computer  stockists  nationwide 

Find  out  more  -  in  your  local  shop! 
The  best  way  to  evaluate  ZX  Microdrive*  and 
Interface  ikto  see  them  tor  your&etf 

There  rs  a  full  range  o*  ZX  peripheral*  -  including 
ZX  Interface  2  for  loystickand  ROM  Cartntjge 
capability,  alongside  the  only  computer  that 
supports  (hem  -  the  ZX  Spectrum* 


For  more  information,  telephone 
Sinclair  Pteearch  Ltd  on  0276  685311 

ZX  Intvrfiv  ** lr*dr  m*rfci  of  S-ndi*  Rf-uwi tt  ltd 


"Sticks  at  the  ready,  the  Chiltern  Computer  Club  buckled  down  to  some  concentrated  critique 
as  they  sifted  through  the  latest  bundle  of  software  to  give  us  their  unbiased  evaluations.  Any 
club  wishing  to  offer  their  reviewing  services  should  contact  Ron  Smith ,  Spectrum  Soft,  1 4 

Rathbone  Place,  London  W1  P  1  DE, 

This  month,  the  reviewers  in  the 
YS  jury  hot-seat  are  all 
members  of  Chiltem  Computer 
Club,  Eaton  Bray,  near 
Dunstable;  They  are  {in 
alphabetical  order)  Simon  Cox, 
Ian  Simmonds  and  Jon  Warner. 
To  be  honest  it  wasn't  an  easy 
job  for  them,  with  many  of  the 
latest  offerings  falling  short  of 
an  acceptable  level  —  in  fact, 
sheer  crud  in  some  cases.  Read 
on  to  find  out  what  (and  what 
not)  to  buy* 

The  Chikern  Computer  Club 
was  formed  around  two  years 
ago,  and  usually  it  manages  to 
attract  aboul  35  members  — 
ages  ranging  from  1 3  years  to 
near  senility.  Membership  is 
currently  £4  per  year,  for  which 
potential  members  can  expect 
practical  help  with  their 
computer  problems,  and  guest 
speakers  and  lecturers  from 
time  to  time. 


Thai*  f In*  ftllowt  from  th*  CMIttrn  Computing  Club  —  obviously 
■  hfttd  day1!  night  f  *tri*wing. 


tha  afrjtin  of 


Club  contacts  can  be  made 
via  Steve  Belts,  42  Wallace 
Road,  Eaton  Bray,  near 
Dunstable,  Beds  —  telephone 


(0525)  220922,  Finally  thanks 
go  to  Steve  for  the  ultra-fast 
speed  at  which  he  pulled  the  test 
together. 


C0UDIT7 

PtilppiAiioclites/lSJS 
As  a  prisoner  in  the  infamous  Second 
World  War  camp,  you  must  make  your 
escape  through  trie  network  of  tunnels, 
rooms,  and  chambers,  all  the  time 
evading  your  captors, 
III  The  quarter  screen  displays  of  the 
graphics  locations  are  often  very 
detailed,  and  they're  drawn  in 
approximately  one  second  —  thanks  to 
machine  code.  Also  very  rapid  is  the 
games  response  to  your  commands, 
which  all  goes  to  make  this  one  of  the 
more  enjoyable  adventures  around  6/1 10 
Jll  The  colour  used  in  this  game  is  quite 
realistic,  and  both  the  drawing  of 
locations  and  the  command  response 
time  is  surprisingly  quick  6  1 0 
SI  Ml  The  game  is  nicely  presented, 
with  the  instructions  loaded  from  tape. 
Overall,  it's  a  well -written,  welt  thought 
out  and  enjoyable  game,  8/ 1 0 


NIGHT  GUNNER 

Oiqitil  Inlegritt&fi/tfi  35 

An  arcade  game  with  a  Second  World 

War  scenario  in  which  you  must  defend 

your  plane  against  attack  from  enemy 

aircraft  as  you  try  to  destroy  ground 

targets- 

SI  ma  Some  of  the  best  features  of  this 

g;imc  arc  the  effects,  which  reproduce 

the  sounds  of  the  plane's  engine,  guns 

firing  and  bombs  exploding,  lial 

includes  very  smooth  sprite  graphics 

and  well-defined  aeroplanes.  7/ 1 0 

III  This  is  really  just  another  shoot-em- 

up  game .  but  bftCima  (fail  0M  features 

good  old  aeroplanes  instead  of  aliens,  it 

doesn't  seem  quite  so  unoriginal.  Choice 

of  colour  is  above  average,  as  are  the 

graphics  and  sound,  7/10 

jll  The  well  defined  graphics,  superb 

choice  of  colour  and  very  playable 

speed,  make  this  an  excellent  game  to 

both  play  and  watch.  8/10 


KNIGHT  DRIVER 

Hi  vi  ii  Consul  1 1  fit  s/t  595 
A  "plan  view*  racing  game  in  which  you 
carefully  steer  the  car  left  and  right, 
accelerate  and  decelerate  to  keep  it  on 
the  track. 

lit  The  speed  is  fail  enough  to  make 
this  game  addictive,  hut  it  s  a  pity  Chit 
the  track  Ofdy  takes  up  about  a  quarter 
of  the  screen  —  the  rest  is  given  over  to 
instructions,  fuel  gauges  and  so  on  4/10 
Jll  While  the  colour  and  speed  are 
reasonable,  the  graphics  are  too  large, 
and  Urn  sends  to  spoil  the  effect  Hi 
still  a  well  thought-out  and  highlv 
enjoyable  game,  with  *ome  exciting 
effects,  6/10 

Sinn  its  a  pity  that  the  bed  wi  of 
colour  happens  to  be  on  the  three 
quarters  of  the  screen  that  contain  the 
instruction*,  and  the  instrument  panel. 
It's  an  easy  game  to  control,  but  difficult 
to  win.  6/10 


52 


1                   ■ 

[ 

FANTASIA  DIAMOND 

Hewian  Cdfttultinti/t 7  95 
An  adventure  in  which  you  have  to 
retrieve  the  magnificent  Kan:  a  ski 
Diamonds  a  family  heirloom,  From  the 
imposing  fortress  across  the  river.  Now 
its  up  to  you, 

Sim oi  This  one  has  above  average 
graphical  representation,  its  fun  to  play, 
and  the  theme  is  thoroughly  exciting. 
Good  use  ofthe  Spectrum's  capabilities 
is  made  even  better  hy  a  very  good  idea. 
One  of  Hew  son's  best,  1/10 
Jon  The  overall  effect  of  we  1 1 -defined 
graphics,  and  a  good  choice  of  colour  is 
very  pleasing.  And  you  can  add  to  thai 
the  speedy  checking  of  commands 
against  the  large  vocabulary,  and  rapid 

Etc  hire  drawing.  6/ 1 0 
11  Nice  use  of  colour,  pleasant  but 
basic  graphics  and  quite  fast.  Only  thing 
is,  it  seems  to  resemble  The  Hobbit  on 
just  a  few  too  many  occasions.  5/10 


MILLYPEDE 

Add  On  Electnalet/tS.95 
Another  Centipede  game  in  which  the 
object  is  to  shoot  a  millypede  that's 
crawling  down  through  a  mushroom 
patch,  all  the  while  avoiding  the  spider 
and  hitting  snails  for  bonus  points. 
SlMI  In  addition  to  being  just  another 
Centipede  game,  this  one  suiters  from 
poor  graphics  and  a  sound  output  that 
isn't  worth  amplifying.  However,  the 
speed  is  just  about  right,  and  the  choice 
of  colours  is  impressive.  3/10 
Jll  Good  overall  screen  effect,  but  the 
speed  is  perhaps  a  little  too  fast  — 
especially  the  spider.  Control  is  a  bit 
difficult  because  the  game  control  keys 
arc  too  close  together.  6/10 
III  Graphics  definition  is  run-of-the- 
mill,  and  movement  is  one  character 
block  at  a  time.  But  the  overall  display  is 
improved  by  the  choice  of  colours  which 
contrast  well  enough.  4/10 


OLTMPIMAHU 

Autopilt/eEQO 

You,  as  the  Pi -Man.  must  compete  in 
Five  events  at  the  Olympics  in  an  effort 
to  win  as  many  gold  medals  as  you  can. 
Jti  Every  screen  in  this  totally  original 
game  is  both  colourful  and  clear,  and  the 
graphics  are  extremely  well-defined  and 
very  smooth.  Overall,  a  well  thought-out 
and  well  re  prese  mated  game.  8/ 10 
Slnii  Four  ofthe  events  in  these  games 
are  amusingly  called  Pi  Jump.  Alpi 
Skiing.  Steepichasc  and  Buttcrpi  —  all 
of  which  resemble  one  another  to  some 
extent.  But  with  smooth,  flicker- free 
graphics,  and  contrasting  colours,  the 

Kme  is  still  fun.  6/10 
I  This  one  is  fairly  easy  to  play  —only 
three  keys  are  used  —and  the  program 
responds  quickly  when  they're  pressed. 
But  at  limes,  the  speed  can  be  a  link-  too 
fast,  making  success  frustrating!}1 
difficult.  8/10 


PEDRO 

lmagtne/£5.5Q 

Protect  your  flowerbed  from  invading 

bugs  by  jumping  on  them,  or  blocking 

their  paths  w  ith  compost  or  bricks.  But  if 

things  get  too  bad,  you  can  always  plant 

more  seeds. 

Ill  The  well  -defined  sprites  used  in  this 

game  are  sometimes  difficult  to  make 

out.  because  the  choice  of  colour  is  not 

always  suitable.  However,  the  game  is 

fairly  fast  and  there's  an  excellent 

machine  code  tune,  4/10 

SiftH  The  choice  of  colour  isn't  too  bad, 

but  the  character  movement  is  poor  and 

the  speed  feels  loo  slow,  h  gives  a  good 

imprison  at  first,  but  becomes  boring 

very  quickly  because  silt  hough  the  idea 

is  good,  the  execution  isn't,  4/10 

Jf  1  This  is  a  difficult  ^amc  to  play  in  the 

latter  stages,  because  it  gets  loo  fast. 

The  best  part  about  it  is  the  opening 

tune,  which  is  very  well  written.  4/10 


ORION 

Software  Frojecti/£5.H 
After  an  attack  by  the  Dark  Horde,  100 
of  your  Beta  Class  androids  were 
kidnapped.  Your  mission  is  to  rescue 
them  from  the  maw  of  underground 
MttlgM  tMOMtb  thi  pita*  ofNtdib, 
leader  of  the  Horde. 
Ill  This  uses  w ell  defined  sprites  which 
move  just  a  fraction  jerkily  on  the  left- 
hand  side  at  i  be  screen  —  and  shows 
such  information  as  score,  high  score 
and  time  left  on  the  other.  7/10 
Jon  This  game  has  a  well  laid  out  screen 
display*  and  the  sound  output  is  of  a 
reasonable  quality,  However*  the  speed 
is  a  bit  slow,  which  is  a  let-down.  6/10 
Slmi  A  rather  uninteresting  game*  with 
poorly  defined  graphics  and  below 
average  choice  of  colours,  which  fails  to 
keep  your  attention.  Rather  a  poor  effort 
from  the  people  who  put  out  tetanic 
Miner  5/ IQ 


TWO  GUN  TURTLE 

Uthlttrien/tSJS 

An  arcade  game,  similar  ioPssst  by 

Ultimate,  where  you  defend  a  strawberry 

patch  situated  in  the  middle  c ?f  the  screen 

from  marauding  bugs*  by  blasting  Ibcni 

with  your  six-shooter 

III  The  fast  smooth  graphics  in  this 

game  are  almost  of  arcade  quality.  And 

the  idea  of  a  pistol  packing  turtle  is  good 

fun,  ifnol  original;  it's  been  avail  able  for 

the  One  for  some  time.  4/10 

Sim  oa  Good  use  of  colour  and  the  sprites 

stand  out  well  on  the  background,  hui 

it's  a  bit  too  fast  for  the  player  to  be 

successful  A  reasonably  addictive  game 

that's  fun  to  play.  A  supple  wrist  is 

needed  for  this  game?  5/10 

Joi  The  game  includes  some  pleasing 

tunes,  and  the  explosions  are  reproduced 

well.  It's  a  very  colourful  game  that 

would  be  improved  if  the  graphics  didn't 

flicker  so  much.  3/10 


33 


ZIG  ZAG 

DkaTronici/LS.OS 

A  maze  game  with  30  screens  in  which 
you  must  track  down  androids  and 
interrogate  them  for  the  special  code 
that  will  allow  you  to  progress  to  the 
next  level. 

Ill  The  speed  is  much  faster  than  with 
other  maze  games,  with  drawing  of  the 
next  position  taking  place  almost 
instantaneously.  This  is  really  just  a 
common-or-garden  maze  game,  but  it's 
still  appealing  and  holds  your  attention 
for  some  time.  5/10 
Stall  Well  executed  sprite  movement, 
playable  speed  and  a  pleasant  colour 
selection  all  go  to  make  this  game  fun 
and  interesting  to  play.  5/10 
Job  This  game  includes  excellent  3D 
effects  which  are  both  smooth  and  well- 
defined.  And  the  choice  of  colours  is 
effective  —  they  nicely  complement  one 
another.  6/10 


ARCTURUS 

fitiHi/cs.as 

A  3D  noughts  and  crosses  game,  where 
the  plot  is  to  enslave  the  free  world  by 
making  us  devote  all  our  incredible 
mental  resources  to  solving  A  re  tu  run's 
ultimate  mental  challenge 
Jon  I  he  idea  behind  this  game  isn't  bad, 
but  it's  certainly  not  new.  Also  the 
representation  of  the  supposedly  3D 
grid  is  very  poor.  The  whole  thing  could 
have  been  made  better  if  the  colours  had 
bittffl  more  thoughtfully  selected.  3/ 10 
Slut i  Something  that  should  appeal  to 
anyone  who  likes  mind  games,  and 
made  better  by  its  fast  response  time, 
and  reasonable  use  of  colour.  4/10 
lit  The  cubes  are  poorly  represented, 
and  the  choice  of  colours  is  very 
disappointing.  This  game's  best  feature 
is  its  response  time  but.  to  be  honest* 
your  time  would  be  better  rewarded  w  1 1  h 
pencil  and  paper,  4/10 


3D  STAR  WARS 

Cittern  Cables  Inlemiljiail  (CC0/E145 
A  3D  game  where  you  take  the  part  of 

[  Likeriearthirikcr  ;in<1  re  cruel  thftbottk 
of  the  Jedi.  taking  on  the  entire  rebel 
fleet  on  your  own.  This  task  is  made 
easier  as  you  have  at  your  disposal  an 
up-to-date  star  fighter. 
J DH  The  graphics  in  this  game  are  jumpy, 
and  the  colours  don  t  contrast  well.  It's 
interesting  enough  to  start  with,  but  soon 
becomes  boring  because  there's  too  much 
on-screen,  5/10. 

Si  mil  Colour  is  used  fairly  well,  but  the 
graphics  are  wobbly  and  don't  really 
resemble  what  they're  supposed  to.  And 
come  to  that,  the  idea  is  fairly  unoriginal 
and  uninteresting,  6/ 10. 
Ijn  The  game  is  colourful,  with  good  3D 
effects  when  you  encounter  a  meteor 
storm.  But  the  idea  is  far  from  original, 
and  there's  not  much  variation  —  which 
makes  thing*  rather  tedious.  5.10 


*£ 

ATLAS  ASSIGNMENT 

Ilr|inGifnti/f5  95 

Take  the  part  of  a  James  Bond-type  spy 

as  you  work  through  \h\s  <e\i  nnlv 

adventure  that*  interspersed  with  three 

arcade  games. 

Ill  This  game  responds  to  commands 

almost  instantaneously,  and  the  arcade 

sections  are  jusl  as  good-  While  the 

choice  of  white  characters  on  a  black 

background  for  the  adventure  pan  is 

quite  dull,  colour  is  well  used  in  other 

ways.  7/10 

Sim  al  If  s  nice  to  sec  an  adventure  with 

an  original  theme,  and  making  the  b^si 

of  some  good  ideas.  Text-only 

adventures  can  be  fun,  and  this  one 

proves  it.  Its  original  theme  makes  it  fun 

to  play,  and  the  overall  effect  is 

enjoyable.  Very  addictive,  8/10 

J 11  The  arcade  parts  of  this  adventure 

are  very  simple,  and  their  use  of  colour 

is  limited.  6/10 


BUBBLE  TROUBLE 

ArcilBSafivin/tS.SQ 

A  maze  game  which  involves  stealing 

money,  etc,  while  avoiding  the  pursuing 

bubbles  whose  sole  aim  is  to  suffocate 

vow  on  contact. 

til  While  the  graphics  in  this  game  are 

adequate,  they  don't  really  alter  very 

much.  And  the  same  can  be  said  for  the 

choice  of  colours  which  is  disappointing, 

especially  when  there  are  50  screens  to 

work  through.  4/10 

Simon  Visually,  the  effect  is  quite 

pleasing,  with  sprite  movement  and 

well-defined  characters  that  are  clearly 

visible  —  which  is  partly  due  to  the 

choice  o(  colours.  5/ 1 0 

ill  The  lowest  speed  level  is  reasonable. 

but  the  higher  levels  are  far  too  slow; 

which  is  surprising  when  you  consider 

the  game  is  written  in  machine  code 

Generally,  it's  just  another  Pacmun 

variation.  3/10 


CAESAR  THE  DAT 

N<rrar*itt/»J5 

You,  as  Caesar  the  Cat,  must  chase 

mice  from  the  well -stocked  larder  before 

they  start  nibbling  the  food,  and  without 

knocking  stuff  oflfthe  shelf  —  especially 

the  crockers 

111  This  game  makes  excellent  use  of  the 

Spectrum's  graphics  potential  with  huge 

sprites  moving  smoothly*  without  a  trace 

of  Hicker.  9/10 

Jon  The  speed  is  entirely  suited  to  the 

style  of  play,  with  the  mice  gelling  faster 

as  the  game  progresses  (although  the 

cat's  speed  remains  constant  throughout  j 

And  the  bright,  colourful  display  is  so 

good  thai  the  overall  effect  looks  more 

like  n  photograph  than  a  graphics 

display.  9/10 

Sim 01 A  highly  original  game  for  young 

and  old  alike,  but  it  would  have  been 

nice  if  mews  and  squeaks  could  have 

been  included.  9/IOD* 


54 


'Datapius  have  made  their  name  supplying  computer  peripherals  at  competitive  prices. 
I  believe  that  we  have  now  found  the  best  price/performance  daisy  wheel  alternative 
to  dot  matrix.  The  idea  f  printer  for  both  data  and  word  processing.  Trudy,  a  high  quality 
machine  at  an  affordable  price.  As  Managing  Director.  I  guarantee  you  won't  buy  better 

So  make  the  most  of  your  Spectrum  and  turn 
it  Into  a  quality  printing  system  Jor  home 
correspondence,  documents,  short  stories 
and  business  use.  The  special  interface  kil 
required  is  available,  see  coupon. 


%^ 


Use  standard  stationery  or,  for  ONLY  £79  {if 
ordered  with  your  TP1)  we  will  supply  a 
tractor  feed  so  you  can  use  continuous  or 
fan  fold  paper. 

This  is  just  one  offer  you  canl  miss.  To 
avoid  disappointment  RING  NOW  on  our  24 
hour  answering  service  0242  527412  to  place 
your  order  quoting  your  Ace  ess/  Bare  I  ay  card 
No.,  expiry  date  and  fufl  name  and  address 
OR  complete  the  coupon  below  and  POST 
TODAY 

Please  allow  28  days  delivery.  If  not 
completely  satisfied  return  goods  in  original 
packing  within  TO  days  of  receipt  and  we  will 
replace  or  refund  your  money  in  full. 
For  technical  queries  telephone  our  Expert 
Hotline  0242  37373  or  visit  our  showroom  at 
39  49  Roman  fioadk  Cheltenham, 


SPECIFICATIONS 

fttnt  Spud  f 30  worn 

CFwaelor  Hi  12S  ASCn  £8  pnnlaoJe 

OwectPf  vpwung  13  tff 

Pap#r  width  U  ma* 

Hg  Urn  10  5'  i26  cfwacf«r  Una 
Lin*  spacing  &  imta  per  incfi 
Paper  Fo«i  Friction  ***&*  ***Wt  Of 

?40  vOltl  V?H/ 

Dknawarii  <h>  6  4  m  19  V  (Dm?  4 
WorjhE  13,5  lb* 


Operator  Genmoii  ******  ontoM..  lop 

«t  form,  Hi^rMvon 
coniiPli  (5  rtwe<ii 

INTERFACE 


Cnntwwft  cornpantf*.  7  \>\  paraim 
o«i*  3  cannot  tinea  (data,  fltieba,  buay 

acfciKflrtMlQei 

tlS£&C  compatipi*  SO  10200  BP5 
p*nty  and  crwanor  on  J*^rii 


Dfllaplul^PSl  Ud  3949  Roman  f*>ed  CtWWpnham  GiSl  AGO  Rag  No  1 713371  England 
OH**  opon  to  UK  only  wniia  Sloth*  l«t 

I" 

1  Oh 


To  DAtAPLU&PSI  Lid  3949  flomeh  Be*l  Gneilimham  OL5l  WG 
•aftdrrw- 

I  ancvoee  rfiy"'©neoua  'ry  E 


*iihRS332 


taso 


TPl  with  pern 


£250 


mlaffi 


r» 


t  «-,■,« 


CT9 


* 


*• 


•  ••    * 


gremd 

Tot.il      and  mad*  My  at**  to  OATAFLlJ&Pa  Lid 

or  cJwojt  *ny  AeoatarBef cJevcafd* 
Account  No 


Mil Hill 


■  *       ■  **«         *         *•#•       ■  *  •  ■ 

§   C  #     #  #   •     *>  i       *        *     ■ 

**•        •       *      *      •        *    *  ■*•#    if* 


* 


Evp#y  oat*  or  card 

SiO/ialur* 

Ado^Mi 

ftnfcotie 
Tateprwie  No 

taah*>ModnJ  01  m  >■  comiiulr- 


& 


3 
I 


Our  man  behind  the  software  scenes,  Ron  Sm  ithF  gels  fo  grips  with  the  gossip 
on  alt  that's  new  from  around  the  houses. 


Anyone  could  be  forgiven  for 
thi  nkmg  that  bal  anc  in  g  a  coun 
lry*s  economy  is  a  difficult 
enough  task .  es  pec lal ly  in  terms 
Of  a  world  market  But  Bug 
Byre's  new  game  pushes  the 
player  to  previously  unknown 
1 1  m  its  of  m  i  nd-  boggl i  ng  supply 
and  demand  in  this  new  gal  ax 
ian*  commodity  trading  game. 
The  game,  known  as  Star 
Tmderf  features  eight  planets, 
each  running  an  economy  +  and 
each  relying  on  the  other*  for 
trade.  So  it's  the  task  of  the 
player's  alter-ego  —  manifes- 
ted as  the  last  remaining  extra 
terrestrial  trader  —  to  help 
these  planets  maintain  vital 
supplies  by  making  sure  the 
goodies  get  from  a  place  of 

filennful  supply  to  a  not-so- 
on una  te  neighbour.  But,  be 
warned ,  if  you  fa  i  I  to  trade  wi  th 
a  planet  in  need,  the  price  of  the 
required  commodity  will  roc- 
kct{  sorry!}.  And  if  all  that  isn't 
enough,  there  are  space  pi  rate  s 
who  demand  a  shaft  of  your 
profits  ( taxes },  you  can  choose 
to  fight  them  instead  of  paying, 
but  in  that  case  you'll  need  to 
buy  some  weapons.  The  game 
should  be  available  mid- July, 
Another  project  currently 
under  wraps  at  BB  is  a,  so  far, 
unnamed  little  number  where 
the  player  guides  a  person 
through  a  3D  world  and  views 
a  variety  of  passing  objects 
through  their  eyes.  Says  BB*s 
Trevor  Hall. kS  we  don't  know 
what  the  story  I  ine  will  be  yet .  1 1 
could  be  an  adventure,  or  per- 
haps like  Manic  Miner,  where 
you  have  to  pick  up  objects," 
But  whatever  the  theme,  the 
word  is  this  game's  real  attrac- 
tion Aiii  fa-  u  abUb]  to  Aom 
adjects  getting  larger  as  they 
are  approached,  and  diminish 
ing  a&our  character  moves  away 
from  ihcm 

One  other  project  on  BBs 
software  mind  at  the  moment  is 
a  program  called  Twin  King 
dom  Paths  Its  an  adventure 
game  with  over  175  different 
locations  that's  been  available 
on  the  Commodore  64  for  some 
time  The  plan  is  to  convert  it  to 
run  on  the  Spectrum,  but  SB's 
Mr  Hall  isn't  too  optimistic. 


He  says. "  "the  graphics  may  not 
be  possible". 


ARTIC  GETS  THE  HUMP 

Those  funny  folk  over  at  Artie 
have  come  up  with  three  games, 
all  based  on  a  character  called 
Humpty. 

First  of  the  trio  is  Humpty 
Goes  Walkabout*  and  basically 
it's  a  new  approach  to  a  maze 
game.  Instead  of  Humpty  doing 
the  running  around  and  work- 
ing himself  into  a  bemused 
lather,  the  screen  moves  —  and 
this  causes  the  hup  and  any 
other  nasties  to  tumble  around 
in  haphazard  fashion.  Nest 
comes  Humpty  Itt  The  Gar- 
den .  where  our  hero's  task  is  to 
make  the  flow  era  grow  before 
the  weeds  strangle  them.  You 
achieve  this  by  moving  Humpty 
round  the  garden  t  ap &  so  he  can 
water  his  precious  blooms, 

Third  and  final  in  this  set  is 
Hu  mpty  The  Fng  inetr,  H  e  has 
to  operate  all  sorts  of  different 
machinery  with  his  spanner, 
but  unfortunately  the  butter 
fingered  bufToon  keeps  drop- 
ping his  tool  (or  should  it  be 
wrench?)  on  to  various  con- 
vey or  be  I  ts .  In  this  game  of  sk  i  II 
and  timing.  Hump"  has  to  ret- 
rieve  his  spanner  in  order  to 
keep  things  spinning.  Ail  three 
games  should  be  coming  Into 
the  shops  about  now. 


DURELL  BETS  THE  CHOP 

Duretl  Software.  a£  reported 
last  month,  recently  des- 
patched a  team  of  program- 
mers to  Wesiland  Helicopters 
to  get  the  feel  of  flying  in  a 
Combat  Lynx  —  which  just 
happens  to  be  the  name  of  its 
latest  shoot -em -up  game.  Well, 
the  programmers  have  returned 


safe  and  sound,  and  are  busy 
working  out  the  action  —  a  sort 
of  cross  between   the   usual 
Mast-out  and  simulated  hcli 
copier  (light 

Says  Durells  Robert  White. 
"the  idea  is  to  whir/  around, 
laying  mines  in  order  to  slow 
down  the  enemy  tanks.  But 
there  arc  other  considerations 
—  such  as  not  getting  yourself 
blown  tci  hi  is  in  the  process;  the 
combat  can  be  either  ground 
to- air  or  air  -to- air.  To  succeed 
you  must  be  careful  about 
weapon  "selection,  especially 
as  this  is  affected  by  the  amount 
of  weight  a  chopper  can  cany/1 

Other  features  include  a 
memory  -  m  a  pped  battlefield 
containing  such  essential  info 
as  how  high  the  land  is  at  any 
given  point,  the  portion  of  the 
tanks  and  the  location  of  the 
chopper  And  there's  also  a 
panel  at  the  bottom  of  the 
screen  which  presents  various 
pieces  of  flight  data  to  help  you 
in  your  task.  Watch  the  shops 
around  August,  when  the  pro- 
gram will  be  available  for  the 
48 K  Spectrum,  as  well  as  the 
Commodore  64  and  One 
Aunoa 


IMAGINE  GETS 
GHAUVENIST 

Another  company  with  new 
releases  on  its  corporate  mind 
is  Imagine,  and  this  lime  it's 
out  to  tough  it  with  the  women's 
libbers  out  there.  A  new  game 
called  BC  Hilt  has  a  highly 
an  i  mated  c  a v  cman  who's  fran- 
tic to  perpetuate  the  species, 
but  for  this  he  needs  a  woman 
—  any  woman!  So,  out  of  the 
cave  he  goes,  club  in  hand,  to 
begin  his  quest  and  according 
to  Imagined  Tim  Best+  "The 
game    shows    women    bemp 


Th*  «tory  *o  Iwr  —  m  tcrtfrt  ft orn  Our*14  Soft«r*r*'l 
Combat  Lynx.  Ttitf'v*  only  mini^td  tofl+1  ih*  sc*fi*ry 
scrolling  lofir,  th*  h«Ncop1#r*  ind  linht  *till  h*w*  to 
b*  <mpf*ffi*rit*4-  Watch  t hit  ipict  tor  further 
development* . .  . 


dragged  around  by  their  hair  as 
Bill  tries  to  fulfil  his  basic 
ambitions,"  He.  Tim  Best  that 
is.  also  fully  expects.  lithe 
Greenham  Common  women 
to  take  up  reside  nee  outside  the 
Liverpool -based  company  m 
protest."  No  dhuhi  Imagine 
would  welcome  the  publicity 
fyuch!». 

And  then,  of  course,  there's 
Imagined  completely  new 
range  of  "MegagamesV  Sup- 
posedly, the  software  will  be 
similar  in  style  to  the  glittering 
packages  offered  by  tome 
American  houses  and  will  fea- 
ture targe,  well -defined  char 
scters  on-screen.  They  will  he 
an  environmental  experience, 
where  the  player  will  take  part 
in  role  playing  games"  Al- 
though Imagine  is  still  being 
less  than  forthcoming  about 
the  finished  package*  (pre- 
sumably because  fhey*re  not 
forthcoming  K  it  does  seem  as 
though  there*)'!  be  all  sorts  of 
goodies  like  toys,  tokens,  pos- 
ters, etc.  that'll  accompany 
them.  These  will  appear  in 
limited  edition*  and  probably 
become  collector's  items.  The 
cost  of  this  bracing  experience 
will  be  in  the  £20  30  region  — 
watch  this  space  for  further 
news. 


CRL  GETS  Tf  TIMES 

Two  new  programs  are  on  the 
way  from  CRL  The  fir*t  ii 
aimed  at  that  army  of  people 
who  are  always  in  front  of  you 
doing  25mph  learner  drivers. 
Surprise,  surprise.  it%s  to  be 
called  Highway  Code  and  the 
promise  u  it'll  be  "flood  fun 
and  very  enjoyable*  Hmm. 
Then  theres  a  strategy  number 
catted  Tripz  —  a  twi> player 
game  written  especially  for  the 
Spectrum,  and  nor  just  adapted 
from  a  board  game  mm, 
The  aim  here  is  to  surround 
your  opponent  *s  king  or  crown 
—  chess  anyone? 

CRL  is  also  in  negotiations 
with  one  of  the  TV  companies 
about  adapting  a  children's 
program  for  the  Spectrum. 
Obviously  the  company's  not 
saying  anything  until  the  deal 
is  signed,  just  in  case  any  dis 
closure  should  prove  prejudi- 
cial. Perhaps  it's  the  same 
outfit  who  are  talking  to 
PkTroniks,  whose  people 
seem  to  be  equally  cagey. 
When  asked  if  they  were  fol- 
lowing the  TV  trend.  Dfc*l 
spokesman  would  only  say 
that  his  lips  were  firm  I v  sealed 
We  shall  see)*! 


56 


Jit  East! 

MASTER  MACHINE  CODE 
on  your  Spectrum 


■ 

1 

i\ 

graphics  games  bke  BREA1 
working  DP 

you'll  squire  the  ability  to  create  i 
f  impossabk*  m  6 ASIQ  and  to  plot  e 
taster  than  you  would  ha ve  betevt 


MASTERING  MACHINE  CODE 
ON  YOUR  ZX  SPECTRUM 
Tom  Baker  19  95 

uge  book  is  desaqr  *>i  to 
tBdcr i  you  -he ossoniial is  ka  mutts  of 
programmtng  in  machine  code 

tjytofuBakfirauiht-- 
the  haqhty  successful  "Mastering 
Code  on  the  Z> 
i  book  assumes  abedui&ly  jmi 
previous  knowledge  s  n# 

code*  whatsoever,  and  yd 
promisee  1o  rake  you  to  a  level 
d  pfof*™ney  bejfc: 
widest  Hrwnir  Starting  with 
smote  addfflon  and  suit 
you'll  be  slowly  guided  tkn*. 
*he  entire  subject  ol  maer 
o  book  explores  and  ul  disss  the 
code,  giving  you  real  tune 
*rvJ  bads  you  up  to  a  hill 
A  mong  other  usdul  g  lc  i  I  i 
«fttemusc  m  real  time 

■ics 


■vgrtul  Z80  mK"Tt?prorwia:pr  P- 
ts  desgned  tor  i  fv» 
understand  the  i 

Each  book  is  |ust  £5.95 


SPECTRUM  MACHINE  CODE 
MADE EASY 

Volume  One  —  James  Walsh 
Volume  Two  —  Paul  Halm©* 
These  two  books  provide  a  graduated 
coonse  tn  machine  ctsdfr  prograrrirnsrcj 
i  ie  ZX  %»ctrwn  Book  one  start* 
oiccofic^ptiot 

exptana:  laxy  matte, 

hexadecimai  and  baw  camremon, 
leading  as  qurckiv  and  patnkr 
vpt  Mi  b  mti  ine  ruleiafl  I  typa 
hi  iddieMlng  ti  •  Spectrum's 


TMK  SPECTHUM  MACHINE 
CODE  REFERENCE  GUIDE 
Microdrive,  tntedace  1,  and 
ROM  Disassembly 
Hichard  Roa  Langler  £4  95 
The  ie  reiefmre  work 

Spectrur  <fe 

programme**  contains  a  kill 
disassembly  um 

ROM,  wuh 


M 


load  of 

tfedbyd. 

inables  and  lovoral 
mxJ.  uxtr 
nanual  TV*    Ivrpt-  - 

ice  1  aectiofiof  ti, 


headings  tn  the  V;.  -  ■  ir 

mclud&tb&FlS232J- 

LocalArBa!- 

Viin.  ■ 

mufil  reference  work  lot  ier  iour  Spectrum  prtacl 

cod*  programmers. 


This  book  45  li 


:e  Publications,  Depl 


^a-at*  pgnd  m  ih-*i«* 


I  em  !■•*■* 


Addr« 


D  Mutcrtna  Mdcrurx.'  Coda  on  ydur  ZX  Spectrum  —  Torn  Baker 
*93 

□  Spectrum  Msehm?  Cod»  y.  Volume  One  (or  bogmnft  — 

sWakh     £595 
O  Sp&etrum  Mflcfarx*  *u  -  Icr  advanoad 

:  f  OftAlfTOT         PfrjIHMfN  £9  96 

n  The  Spectrum  MachdrjeGr»J*  RefflfeiMa 
-ifd  Roes  Langtoy      £4  95 

□  Creating  Advwituruonyour  ZXSrj»cir  t*  Stow  and 
biiiMMortlettuin      £4 

O  Putting  Your  Spectrum  to  Work  (Kndudaa  1 5  nvapr  pf 

inerudinq  a  word  pfuommf  and  jqpraad  afaec*  ealculaiiona)  — 
Cr™CaImtar-  £4  95 

□  Craatmq  Arc^cit'  "*.*im**  c*k  i-  Ilvmiel  llnywood 

i":  ft  grflmming  ;"  a  ZX  Spe  Irurn  i*>  B9 

D  60  Gdines  4nd  Afjpbcatiorxi  for  lht»  ZX  Sf  *,  •  • 

£4 
D  Beyond  Smtpfe*  B A-':L!  ir  ZX  Sp** 

ID  lorw      £7  95 

AU  boois  j  v ■  aikifcte  tir  -m  tiamputer  and  book  «tcsr«  inL-luding  V.' 
^su|3fsUdivy  l>M*txTiTi|*jtfr  risk's  !n  Road,  Often,  Bunump 


S ,  44  -  46  EaiU  Court  Road,  London  W8  6EI 

O  Irtttap.1  r;jt',ir*tr       •  rnrUrtnrii 

14*3 
□  20  Svnpfe  Etecf roror  Pr 

15 
QQmtBttknl*  a  795 


IV1TERR1CE 

PUBUCATIONS  [.1 

We're  the  experts! 


THRILLS  FROM 


After  all  those  hours  spent  playing  other  peopte  's  adventures,  the  time  has  come  to  create 
some  of  your  own.  Thomas  Green  takes  a  took  at  the  do-it-yourself  package  from  Gitsoft. 


Although  the  scenarios  of  adventure 
games  differ  widely,  their  worlds 
always  comprise  a  series  of  location* 
and  a  number  of  objects,  some  of 
which  have  to  he  found  by  the  player 
and  assembled  in  a  specified  location. 
Hidden  workings  preseni  various  puz- 
zles; in  one  classic  adventure  ^satd  to 
be  the  granddaddy  of  them  all)  you 
have  IIO  catch  a  bird  to  get  past  the 
serpent,  but  you  can't  catch  the  bird  if 
you're  holding  the  black  rod.  Far 
more  elaborate  situation*  can  and 
have  been  devised  -  the  art,  in  fact, 
is  to  set  pii^Hcs  of  (he  righi  difficulty 
—  but  mosi  of  them  depend  on  dis- 
covering combinations  of  objects,  on 
carrying  out  appropriate  actions  in 
certain  locations,  or  on  performing 
specified  actions  within  a  limited 
number  of  turns. 

The  player  controls  the  game  by 
typing  commands:  GO  FAST  , 
'GET  ROD1  or  CATCH  BIRD*. 
The  computer  usually  replies  along 
the  lines  of  OK*  or  1  CANT:;  par- 
ticular situations  may  evoke  longer, 
more  descri native  messages  "Tl-JF 
BIRD  FLUTTERS  AWAY  FROM 
YOU  AND  SITS  SINGING  JUST 
OUT  OF  REACH'  As  each  new 
location  is  entered,  the  computer  des- 
cribes it  and  lists  any  objects  (coins 
and  jewels,  for  example)  ihat  may  be 
viable  These  objects  can  be  picked 
up  or  dropped,  snmHimm  worn,  and 
soon 


WHAT'S  ON  THE  MENU 

Big  adventures  contain  many  hun 
dreds  or  rooms  and  dnrens  of 
messages  They  cannot  be  written  ad 
hoc;  you  need  a  systematic  approach 
and  a  database  that  records,  for 
instance,  which  objects  are  where, 
etc  The  Quill  supplies  just  that. 
There's  a  convenient  menu  driven 
database  Editor,  which  allows  you  to 
create  or  amend  the  locations,  the 
objects,  the  messages,  and  the  events 
taking    place    in     response     to    the 


player's  commands.  When  the  data- 
base is  ready  to  be  tested,  the  Inter- 
preter runs  the  adventure,  keeping 
track  of  the  player's  commands. 
Finally,  when  the  adventure  is  com- 
plete it  can  he  saved  as  a  stand-alone 
program,  with  facilities  for  saving  and 
restoring  games  and  keeping  the 
•core. 

Fn titles  in  The  Quilt's  database  are 
linked  by  numbers.  For  instance,  each 
message  has  a  number;  THE  BIRD 
FLUTTERS  AWAY  FROM  YOU* 
might  be  message  3.  The  bird  itself 
might  be  object  13,  and  the  black  rod 
might  be  object  20,  At  the  heart  of  the 
system,  the  Event  Table  will  describe 
how  to  interpret  the  command 
CATCH  BIRD".  It  will  do  so  using 
teste,  such  as  PRESENT  13  VU 
object  I  J,  the  bird,  present?')  or 
NOTCARR  20  (is  object  20  not 
being  carried?),  and  actions  such  as 
MESSAGE  i  ("Print  message  num- 
ber J4).  These  are  all  combined  in  an 
"Adventure"  language  like  this: 

CATCH  BIRD 

ciidtfimi 

PRESENT  13 

NOTCARR  20 
tttlnr 

GET  13 

OK 

CATCH  1IRD 
CMittlMI: 

PRESENT  U 
CARRIED  20 
actiiii 
MESSAGES 
DONE 

The  I  nte  rpreter  respond  s  to  t  he  p  I  a  ye  r '  s 
command  'CATCH  BIRD'  by  scan 
ning  the  Event  Table  and  checking  the 
conditions  for  each  possible  interprets 
tion  of  the  words,  As  soon  as  ii  finds  a 
possibility  in  which  all  conditions  are 
met,  the  specified  actions  are 
performed. 

The  Event  Table  is  supplemented  by 
a  Movement  Table  *  which  handles  un- 

58 


conditional  movements  or  single- word 
actions,  such  as  North  or  its  synonym 
"N\  and  a  Status  Table  which  checks 
the  cu  rre  nt  state  after  eac  h  turn ,  and  will 
perform  any  actions  whose  conditions 
are  met.  Numbered  flags  can  record 
past  events,  such  as  having  eaten  an 
apple;  all  the  more  interesting  and  unex- 
pected parts  of  an  adventure  are  likely 
to  make  heavy  use  of  flags  There  are 
particular  flags  which  record  the  num 
ber  of  moves  taken,  whether  the  ligh 
on  for  example,  and  there  arc  a  number 
of  Dags  which  are  automatically  dec 
remeted  on  each  turn.  These  might  be 
useful,  say,  if  the  player  triggers  the  fuM 
on  a  bomb  and  is  allowed  ft ve  turns  to 
reach  safety. 

The  systematic  approach  is  clearly 
far  better  than  any  ad  hoc  efforts  are 
likely  to  be,  MovcoveMhe  Edi toe  makes 
it  simple  to  change  the  text  describing  a 
location,  the  movements  from  a  loca- 
tion, the  Status  and  Event  Tables,  and 
so  on.  Hard  copy  on  the  Spectrum  pnn 
ter  is  easily  produced 

Although  essentially  designed  for 
lest  adventures.  The  Quitl  permits 
user-defined  graphics  and  provides 
changes  of  INK  and  PAPER  colours, 
bleeps,  and  pauses.  The  code  is  very 
speedy,  with  no  watting  for  even  the  I 
gest  room  descriptions  "Well  over  200 
locations"  are  allowed,  and  small  ad- 
ventures will  run  in  the  16K  Spectrum 
(although  The  Quilt  itself  needs  48  K I 
Some  of  the  messages  from  the  Inter 
pre  ter  seemed  a  little  ponderous  and,  in 
most  instances,  I  would  have  preferred 
the  laconic  'What  now?+  to  the  boring  I 
am  ready  for  your  instructions'.  The 
messages  use  *  I  by  default;  a  special  file 
switches  to  fcyou\  but  not  consistently 
A  pity  the  user  can't  tailor  them 

THE  QUALITIES  OF 
QUILL 

In  its  own  terms.  The  Quill  ii  without 
doubt  exceeding]}  usable,  with  its  speech 
editing  and  testing  of  adventures  and 
unusually  clear  documentation.  While 
letting  adventures,  a  diagnostic  table 


THRILLS  FROM 

THE  QUILL 


can  be  displayed  to  show  the  current 
location  and  the  value  of  each  of  the 
flags*  thus  you  can  work  out  why  some- 
thing didn't  do  what  you  expected  —  a 
facility  that  makes  debugging  a  much 
easier  task.  One  small  quibble  though: 
all  built  -in  scoring  is  in  percentage 
terms,  which  means  if  you  add  a  bit 
more  to  the  adventure  you  have  to 


adjust  the  existing  scores. 

Working  with  The  Quill  certainly 
helps  warm  imagination's  wings,  and 
there's  an  impressively  wide  variety  of 
worlds  to  accompany  the  adventure's  in 
GilsotVs  pipeline.  But.  despite  my  ad- 
miration for  the  system  a$  it  stands,  it 
tends  to  encourage  rather  'noddy1  re- 
sults —  mainly  because  the  Interpreter 
fails  to  allow  actions  that  would  surely 
have  been  quite  easy  to  include,  ft 
would  have  been  nice,  for  instance,  to 
perform  an  action  if  A  is  tme  OR  if  B  is 
true:  move  an  object  from  one  location 
to  another;  set  a  Rag;  print  the  value  of  a 
nag  (for  example.  'YOU  HAVE  ONLY 
x  TURNS  LEFT  BEFORE  THE 
EXPLOSION),  change  the  descrip- 


tion of  a  room  after  an  event;  and  be  able 
to  GET  a«y  object  present,  without 
further  specification  (this  would  allow 
me  to  construct  a  version  using  single 
key  pushes  only,  for  younger  children 
who  can  read  but  not  yet  type  —  it  A  tic 
Alac  can  do  it,  so  can  The  Quilt). 

Although  a  number  of  these  require- 
ments cannot  be  met  at  nil.  some,  like 
the  OR,  can  quite  easily  be  but  with  a 
clumsy  and  inscrutable  result.  Others. 
such  as  moving  an  object,  or  changing 
the  description  of  a  room,  demand  a  de- 
gree of  ingenuity;  making  an  animal 
follow  you  seemed  at  first  impossible 
until  the  mysteries  were  explained  to 
me,  ( Hint:  you  have  to  make  it  both  a 
message  and  an  object  J  Ingenuity  is 


A  BIRD  IN  THE  HAND 


TM*  •  ■atwpla  ia  ■  rathar  short  advantura  gam*  bated  on  Ilia 
BtFd/Rod  aaga  In  olomvic  adwantur«»,  Tha  gama  haa  only  two 
room*  and  two  objacta  but  i#f«i  to  ihow  th»  way 
idvtntufit  if*  buiH  up.  AH  I  ha  bunt:  information  it  alorad  m 
m  tat  of  labia*  —  maaaaga*.  location  daacriptiena,  poti+bi* 


movamanta  and  soon,  Tha  Vocabulary  tab  I  a  Hat  a  all  tha 
wordt  lha  gama  undaratanda  —  moat  of  thaaa  ara  pradaflni 
by  On*  ill.  Fin  ally,  III*  actual  "program"  hi  In*  Evant  Tab!* 
which,  uaing  in*  oth*r  tablat,  dicta! *■  how  tha  gam* 
ra  *  pond  «  to  in*  play  or1*  command*. 


VOCABULARY  TABLE 


1 

aira 

ii 

■**> 

ir 

14 

a 

4 

** 

•4  t* 

i**j* 

AKl 

t"« 

a  ap 

MESSAGE TABLI 

i 

■ 

_o  * 

LOCATION  TABLE 

mrm    !*■    - 
A  liny    tunrwl     l**d«    »«t.'  . 

■ 

il#i  i       a 

Bbjpsel 

a  atat*  ft** 

□aiact  i 

a   CTHrlw]     ||  > 


EVKNTTABLE 


Of T      fell 


1+ 

NOTcaaa 

OCT 


net 
or 


..    i 

i 

1 1 *  i. 


OftJICT  START  LOCATION  TABLI 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  YOUR  - 

LOCATION  ARE  TAKEN  F  ROM 

THE  LOCATION  TABLE  YOU 

START  IN  A  VAST  HALL, 

LOCATION  0 


THE  ROD  IS  OBJECT  0  — 

(LOCATION  TABLE)  AND 

STARTS  OFF  IN  LOCATION  0 

(DEFINED  BY  THE  OBJECT 

START  LOCATION  TAFJLEi 


GET  BOD  IS  LOOKED  UP  IN 

THE  EVENT  TABLE  THERE 

ABE  NO  RESTRICTIONS  ON 

PICKING  UP  THE  ROD 

ALTHOUGH  QUILL  WILL 

AUTOMATICALLY  OBJECT  IF 

ITS  NOT  PRESENT  THE 

RESPONSE  IS  MESSAGE  3 

PROM  THE  MESSAGE  TABLE 


E  USES  THE  MOVEMENT 

TABLE  TO  MOVE  TO 

LOCATION  1 


FIRST  ATTEMPTS  TO  PICK  UP 
THE  BIRO  ARE  REJECTED 
THE  EVENT  TABLE  ENTRY 
FOR  GET  BIRD  SPECIFIES 

THAT  IF  OBJECT  0  (THE  HOD) 

15  BEING  CARRIED  THEN 

THE  RESPONSE  SHOULD 

ONLY  BE  MESSAGE  0 


ONLY  WHEN  THE  HOD  IS  - 

NOT  BEING  CARRIED 

(NOTCARflO)  WILL 'GET 

BIRD  LET  YOU  PICK  UP  THE 

BIRO. 


INVEN  LISTS  THE  OBJECTS  . 

YOU  ARE  CARRYING  NOTICE 
THAT  THE  VOCABULARY 
TABLE  TAKES  ONLY  THE 
FIRST  FOUR  LETTERS  OF 
WORDS  SO  INVE.  INVEN. 
INVENTORY  WOULD  ALL 
WORK  ALSO. INVE  ISA 

SYNONYM  FOR  I  (THEY  BOTH 
HAVE  THE  NUMBER  104} 
AND  ITS  ACTUALLY  THE 

ENTRY  "I-"  IN  THE  EVENT 

TABLE  THAT  CAUSES  QUILL 

TO  EXECUTE  THE  INVEN 

COMMAND 


•  Yq a  are  la  a  vast  hall 
A  tiny  Tunnel  leads  tit  I. 
I  caa  also  lit:- 
A  Black  Rod 


J 


TiN  me  what  la  it. 
•  >«ETMD 
Gil.  Iftlt'l  BMff 

r 


T. 


Till  mi  win  to  do 
>E 


Teiifil*  itill  rtticm 
The  Btl|  vtf  ttl  li  wtit 
I  tie  iiio  tie  - 

ft  cktiriil  little  bird 

Ii  ready  for  your  instructions 

>fiET  BIRD 

Use  bird  HiHert  iviy  end  litt  tinging  nu(  ol 

rtid. 


Tell  ne  wbitle  if. 

0R0PA0D 
«<  CLJMfi!il>>> 


I  await  your  command 
-BET  BIRD 

Tei'tt  played  this  be  tart  hateii  yti? 
ML 


livid  your  command 

mm 
I  hire  wit*  Mi:* 
A  (Itiftil  little  bird 


i  twin  ye 
> 


Co  hunting  with 


SOFTWARE  FOR  AL 


AMILY 


lb ytftftORSOn- PO Ben  50  fepmter  I  tnttai* i  ctequ&PG  to/ £  fnufcpjytfcfc 

«fa  B*S  §H  to  Duitai  Account  Mm  w  Cruuf  f frw&p j^i a  I  bf 

|£fe»t  aft3  ff*  th*  to&cwtftfl  (e«ter  iundfrsmnd!tiin*9v  ^jThttmceiMilbih»ldmn^ 
nurtwm«iw*faJtidiiftin  bchrfMitfie 

Hi  ifr*  S04CI  prMdftd)'  ^j^lPun  HTI  [tfiin,  nUU  bjflfc  JCCOtffl 


THE  QUILL 


fun,  but  slow  to  create  and  sometimes 
tricky  lo  debug. 

These  features  would  allow  more 
sophisutjated  worlds  and  more  interest- 
ing relationships.  As  it  stands.  The 
Quit!  makes  it  easier  to  hide  a  torch  in 
one  arbitrary  place  and  a  battery  in 
another  than  to  create  a  world  with  a 
lunatic  logic;  easier  just  to  make  the 
player  die  and  be  forced  to  start  again 
than  to  create  bizarre  but  comprehens- 
ible events.  Two  Qmi//- written  adven- 
tures came  with  die  test  package  — 
Magic  Castle  and  Diamond  Trait  — 
and  both  fell  into  that k  Snakes  and  Lad- 
ders" trap 

By  keeping  the  Interpreter  Language 
simple,  however,  the  authors  have 
made  sure  that  it's  highly  compact  and 
very  easy  to  icam.  Its  just  a  question 
of  balance, 

Another  problem  is  that  despite  the 
excel  tent  Editor  and  the  diagnostics  for 
testing  adventures,  the  structure  of  the 
database  is  not  far  removed  from  that  of 
machine  code,  because  of  all  those 
inflexible  numbers  linking  things  to- 
gether You  can't  use  the  command 
MESSAGE  'HARD  LUCK":  you 


have  to  More  HARD  LUCK'  in  the 
Message  Table,  note  the  message  num- 
ber x,  and  use  the  command  MES- 
SAGE x.  Similarly,  the  separation 
between  unconditional  movements  and 
conditional  —  handled  respectively  by 
the  Movement  Table  and  the  Status 
Table  obscures  the  structure  of  the 
adventure,  making  it  more  difficult  to 
develop  interesting  and  unforeseen 
happenings  —  and  easier  to  introduce 
inconsistencies.  The  problem  is  par- 
ticularly  acute  with  flags,  Flap  have 
numbers,  not  names,  and  their  relation- 
ships are  distributed  through  perhaps  a 
substantial  number  of  entries  in  the 
E  v  c  nt  and  Statu  s  Ta  bles;  these  are  very 
difficult  to  grasp  in  their  entirity.  The 
result  is  that  new  inspirations  are  very 
hard  to  work  in  while  creating  an  adven- 
ture, and  modifying  an  existing  one  is 
more  difficult  still. 

In  short,  The  Quill  is  "first-gener- 
ation \  It* s  a  great  improvement  over 
run-of-the-mill  adventure  programs, 
but  we  can  expect  the  next  generation  to 
offer  increased  levels  of  comprehen- 
sihility  and  modiFiability  One  can  ami 
ci pate  symbolic  names  for  flags*  a  struc- 
ture that  allows  events  dealing  with  the 
bird  and  the  rod"  to  be  treated  as  a  unit, 
and  being  able  to  edit  the  interpreter 
messages.  And  there'll  be  adventures 
lor  foreign  language  speakers,  adven- 
tures for  younger  children,  educational 
adventures  for  teaching  foreign  lang- 
uages, and  adventures  describing  how 
to  use  computer  packages. 


Compared  to  the  general  level  of 
software  documentation,  the  instruc- 
tions and  information  that  uccompan> 
The  Quill  are  undoubtedly  excellent.  A 
52  page  A  5  booklet  describes  the  design 
of  a  small  but  well -chosen  adventure 
that  exhibits  most  of  The  Quilt* $  fea 
lures  and  explains  them  clearly  enough 
for  tnyoilfl  to  understand:  it  then  p 
on  to  give  a  detailed  account  of  every 
pan  of  the  system,  Grammar,  punctua 
lion,  spelling  smd  proofreading  are  very 
accurate  (something  it  would  he  nice  lo 
lake  for  granted,  which  is  hardly  the 
case  with  many  manuals). 

It  would  have  been  helpful  had  the 
author  given  novice  adventurers  a  tittle 
more  guide  nee  in  some  of  the  recog- 
nised tricks  of  the  trade  how  to  set  up 
a  maze,  or  how  to  make  an  animal 
follow  the  player  from  place  to  place. 
Gilsoft  says  it  is  considering  producing 
a  book  on  the  craft  of  adventure  writing: 
let's  hope  so ...  it  might  make  good 
HwJhn 


ALL  IN  ALL 

Setting  up  an  adventure  demands  re- 
sources rather  like  KtlCNN  needed  for 
writing  programs  —  plus  ihc  added 
ingredients  of  creativity  and  wit.  (t  alio 
takes  a  long  time,  but  it  \  <  »u  *  ;ml  to 
it  a  try  ihen  The  Quili  at  114*95  is  a 
robust,  well-documented  and  very  usa- 
ble system  But  beware  it  you 
thought  playing  adventures  was  addic- 
tive, just  try  writing  them'  O 


— 


SSKSKKK  X*"V  Spectrum  keyboard 


ElSGsiniEffiiBrWB 

WKEE&233ERM 


fto* , 

pfrWCl  lot  fOfaCr: 

N  6*  R&2J2  «l  *■*  ' 

•imjfM  arfrtn  Ifwtf  » 


iff  v.v  ■  l  'r*  '  •*    -■  4-  J" . i i •■  m 

On*  »*  SfHCtfum  KflTH IO  C  -*ii  xlypp 
no  tn*  coupon  A&tag  1 5  75  pSp 


J I I 1 L 


ftflMt. 


H''" 


1 
I 

SPECTRUM  FORTH  I  0  CARTRIDGE 


«-  3  -in- 


Skvwnvn 


s<  n  I  \\  \hi 


I1AIIIS  ACCUMTI  »ATA  IMTIT 

Simple  msdHicatien  far  U-81 


£39.95 


#  44  k*f\  plri  full  tmffc  ipttt  fc** 

*  I  H*f  htyi  -    wtiti  ht  tfttitt  fiwrhtti  #f  vB«r  Mo. 

•  Erf«#taiitilff  4tii  j*f4  f*r  **w  *(  ■« 

#  Kit  MmtilY  bfiiJ*  fttiHtiJ  bf  rrwip«r««t  plailk  i* t <opi 

*  Reli*fcl#  prattmaMl  kiffcw*  uwd  by  isdm*  r 

#  R«¥1    iM«ppori1t    tiitilcvrtid    tptftrti.    ittbtfi   ffi»    Uf 
4yM«ifv  It  nun  (oirarr  preiiert  ii  ndtpt.fcaT  #1  iff  tftfflit*, 

*  CtifKtf.  ^M  n\\*i  ipkv. 

*  IfvWari  4*  ujard  it  bt  «W  mJtf  faintly  «t  btviiif  'A 


will 


H*v»fef ,****.,,**  Uf  .M  +  Upl>p 

IfT-**rd  W*T *«■«  +  * !**• 


/P.O'i  ■#«  t»: 


H1K  Supplies 

17  InfUwood 
W#tinf    Svrrav  Mil  311 


61 


Fant**i*e  ow*r  features . . .     Marvol  at  machine  coda  ■ .  - 


If  you  recognise  any  of  the  critical  con- 
ditions portrayed  above,  then  you're 
probably  a  lost  cause  as  far  as  computing 
goes  —  admit  it,  you're  hooked!  And,  as 
a  devout  follower  of  Sir  C  live' s  wonder 
machines,  you 
don't  want  to  miss 
out  on  one  of  the 
best  cures  around 


Raval  in  raviawm . 


Luit  over  listings  . , 


[YSJBy  MDffl  FIRM] 


(our  magazine 
carries  no  Govern- 
ment health 
warning).  j 

You've  doubt- 
less heard  the 
rumour  that  you'll 
always  be  able  to 
take  a  stroll  down 
to  your  local  news- 
agents and  pick  up 
a  copy  of  YS,  no 
problem?  But  the 
fact  is  that  Your 
Spectrum  issue 
one  sold  out  so  fast,] 
we're  still  getting     i 
calls  from  people 


I  would  like  to  subscribe  to  Your  Spectrum  and  QL 

Userfor  the  next  1 2  issues,  starting  with 

the issue. 

I  enclose  a  cheque/postal  order  made  payable  to 
Sportscene  Specialist  Press  Ltd  for  (tick  the 
appropriate  box): 

□  £12  (UK  and  Eire) 

D  E1 5  (Europe)  D  £25  (Airmail) 

Or  please  charge  my  Access/Visa/Diners/ 
American  Express  card  (please  delete  where 
applicable). 

Account  Number     

Name:     . 


Address: 


(please  usa  bloc*  capital 


Postcode 


Send  the  completed  coupon  plus  payment  to 
Speccy  Subs.  Your  Spectrum,  14  Rathbone 
Place.  London  Wl  P 1  DE. 


If  you  don't  wanllo  defnee  your  magnimo  please  make  *  photocopy 

of  thim  of  dor  form. 


anxiously  pulling  their  hair  out  trying  to 

secure  a  copy.  Really! 

So,  that's  why  this  month,  we're 

kicking  off  our  Speccy  Subs  service.  For 

just£l  2  (in  UK  and  Northern  Ireland 

only  —  it's  a  little 
bit  more  for  Europe 
and  Air  Mail)  you 
can  guarantee  that 
each  issue  will 
come  thudding 
through  your  door 
each  and  every 
month. 

All  you  have 
to  do  is  fill  in  the 
attached  coupon 
(or  a  photocopy 
of  same)  and 
unlock  your 
chequebook. 
Of  course,  if  you're 
a  credit  card  king, 
just  give  us  your 
number  and  we'll 
do  the  rest — 
that'll  do  nicely. 


Following  on  in  our  epic  series,  Simon  Goodwin  unlocks  some  ofZtP's  darkest  secrets,  as 
welt  as  detailing  how  to  add  a  couple  of  high  resolution  graphics  commands.  And  there's  stiff 

more  to  come.  .  - 

UNZIPPING  ZIP 


Last  month  we  listed  the  ZJT  compiler, 
which  converts  programs  in  a  subset  of 
ZX  Basic  into  fast  machine  code.  This 
month  we*U  continue  our  discussion  of 
the  way  ZIP  works,  and  show  how  you 
can  add  high  resolution  graphics  com- 
mands to  the  original  program.  The 
series  ends  neat  month  with  a  fast- 
action  game  called  Star  Base,  which 
shows  just  how  effectively  ZIP  can 
speed  up  Basic  programs. 

GENERATION  GAMES 

We've  explained  that  ZIP  converts 
Basic  into  a  form  of*  intermediate  code1 
which  corresponds  more  closely  with 
machine  code,  but  we  haven't  given 
away  many  detail*  of  the  translation 
process.  That'll  be  put  right  in  the  next 
couple  of  pages,  with  a  detailed  exam- 
ple of  the  way  ZIP  sy  nthes  i  ses  m  ach  ine 
code,  (Skip  this  if  you've  already  go* 
a  headache1  \ 

If  you've  examined  the  listing  pub- 
listed  last  month  you  may  have  been 
struck  by  the  brevity  of  the  'code- 
generation'  routine  —  about  30  tines 
from  line  8000  onwards.  In  fact,  only 
two  lines  —  lines  8035  and  8055  -  are 
needed  most  of  the  time.  The  rest  handle 
special  cases,  messages  to  the  user,  and 
tweaks1  to  make  the  resultant  code 
more  efficient, 

The  ZIP  code  generator  was  deliber- 
ately kept  short  and  simple  since  we 
decided  at  sin  early  stage  that  it  was, 
potentially,  the  'messiest'  part  of  the 
program.  It's  also  the  least  portable  — 
effort  spent  producing  good  Z80  code 
would  be  wasted  when  we  came  to  con- 
vert the  program  for  other  machines* 
such  as  the  QL,  Machine  code  has  lots 
of  technical  it  ies  and  special  cases,  and 
it's  easy  to  get  bogged  down  with  code  to 
handle  alt  of  these,  ZiPuses  a  very  sim- 
ple protocol  for  code  generation,  to 
minimise  the  scope  for  confusion. 

The  subroutine  from  line  8000  on- 
wards converts  intermediate  codes  into 
machine  code,  It  uses  a  library  of  'tem- 
plates': groups  of  machine  code  ins  true 
lions  which  together  perform  a  useful 
action ,  sue  \  ■  as  addi  n  g  t  wo  ¥  allies ,  print- 
ing a  string  or  fetching  the  value  of  a 
variable  'J  IP  uses  60  templates  to  com- 
pile a  large  subset  of  ZX  Basic. 

Obviously     some     templates     are 


'general  purpose*  —  it  would  be  silly  to 
have  a  different  template  to  fetch  each 
variable  {FETCH  A,  FETCH  B,  and 
so  on)  In  this  case  ZIP  uses  a  general 
purpose  template  for  all  26  variables 


to  compensate  for  the  odd  Older  in 
which  wc  humans  write  things.  Last 
month  we  explained  this  process  in 
detail  —  in  effect,  we  shuffle  items  so 
that  the  values  needed  for  an  operation 


Listing  1 

A  point lots  program  in  ZX  Busie- 

s'.' u* 

*  *M4.  to  »*£  iff*  -x 

BO    PtOt    1,Y 

If     f 
*0   L*T    1-1*1 

mo  it  Mm  mm  mftm 

«    DO    Id    44 

and  modifies  it  to  handle  the  specific 
one  required. 

Only  two  values  are  passed  into  the 
'code  generation'  routine:  C,  the  tem- 
plate code  (a  value  between  one  and 
60);  and  T,  an  *  extra  information'  value 
used  to  specify  specific  variables,  num- 
bers, or  the  address  of  a  string.  Most 
templates  ignore  the  value  of  T  —  they 
just  use  line  8035  to  find  the  appropriate 
template,  and  line  8055  to  copy  it  into 
place  in  the  machine  code  generated 

by  ZiP, 

Line  8020  sifts  out  the  templates 
which  need  extra  information:  line 
8 1 00  onwards  is  used  to  convert  general 
purpose  templates  into  specific  ones. 
For  instance,  template  2  is  the  machine 
code  to  fetch  a  numeric  value .  In  its  raw 
form  template  2  always  fetches  the 
value  lero.  Line  8 1  1 0  nun!  ific  s  it  to  load 
the  required  value  instead,  by  storing 
the  value  in  T  at  *pc-2T  —  over  the  zero 
in  the  general  purpose  template.  The 
exact  part  of  each  template  altered  will 
vary  depending  upon  the  machine  code 
used. 

Lines  8 1 90  to  8200  handle  the  print- 
ing of  strings.  Template  26  uses  the  start 
address  of  the  string  —  supplied  in  T.  as 
usual  —  and  works  out  the  length  of  the 
string  by  searching  for  inverted 
commas.  Once  the  end  has  been  found, 
it  plugs  the  start  and  length  into  the  tem- 
plate and  stores  the  text  of  the  string 
immediately  after  the  template. 

Listing  1  is  a  short  program  which  we 
will  more -or -less  compile  by  hand, 
fol lowing  the  rules  used  by  ZIP.  The 
first  step  is  to  convert  the  program  into 
intermediate  code.  This  involves  break- 
ing down  and  re  ordering  the  program, 


Listing  2 


Th»  um«  point  |*  •■  program  in 
mt«  rm  •dial  *  cod  • . 


Lin*  No. 

Ufcol 

Mnemonic* 

mm  ioi 

CLM 

LJtK   »i 

Ft-OKfe 

**-lf*lrt 

*•*! 

WTtO* 

mm-am* 

UPi    1oi 

UTTCH 

• 

■neat 

i 

Urn  **i 

rrrGN 

IH 

PYflG* 

1*2 

FfrTCM 

-5 

Pin 

Ltd  Mi 

rue* 

i 

i 

r*  ot 

iiw  *&i 

m, 

'ITCH 

i 

■  n*f 

■ 

tirt  ». 

#ttu* 

i 

ill 

EQUAL 

IF 

■ 

■  TO* 

urn  »i 

«D  ro 

44 

are  made  ready  before  the  operation  is 
performed.  For  example: 

F0IV-IG6T0  162  STEP  —2 

Becomes: 

FETCH  186 
FETCH  162 
FETCH  -2 
FOB! 

The  second  version  makes  more  sense 
to  a  computer .  which  needs  three  values 
(START,  END  and  STEP)  before  tt 
can  do  anything  with  a  FOR  statement. 
Similarly,  two  values  (X  and  Y  co- 
ordinates) are  needed  by  PLOT,  which 
becomes  FETCH  X.  FETCH  Y* 
PLOT,  instead  of  Banc's  PLOT  XX 
Some  operations  take  two  values  and 
leave  one;  for  instance,  X  f  Y  becomes 
FETCH  X,  FETCH  Y,  ADD.  IF 
X=  1 11  becomes H  It  HX, FETCH 
ML  EQUALS  (which  gives  a  value 
zero  or  one,  depending  upon  whether  or 
not  X  equalled  111). 

Listing  2  shows  the  same  program 
written  as  intermediate  code.  In  each 
line  the  name  of  the  instruction  ICLS, 
FETCH,  STORE,  and  so  on)  corres- 
ponds to  a  template  —  a  value  of  C.  The 


rest  of  the  line,  be  it  a  number,  an 
address,  or  a  variable  name,  corres- 
ponds to  T.  the  "extra  information" 

Notice  bow  ZIP  km  added  the  in- 
struction PRINT  OPEN  before  the 
PLOT  and  PRINT  STRING.  This 
tells  the  Spectrum  to  route  information 
to  the  top  of  the  screen  { rather  than  the 
printer  or  the  EDIT  area)  and  resets  any 
temporary  colours.  You  have  to  per 
form  a  PRINT  OPEN  before  you  put 
any  item  on  the  screen,  or  your  efforts 
might  end  up  using  the  wrong  colours  or 
get  sent  to  the  wrong  device. 


Listing  3 

T1»  program 

in  zao  c  od*  You'd  rplh*r 

pninLiiungi  minmimga,  mniwny 

I\ 

PlitiMful! 

UmNo. 

Lab«l 

MntmQnici 

urn 

Ul 

LA 

CALL 

CALL 

*p3 

paw  pp  iyrw 

n0P-Hpt.D 

4  ant  *a* 

LP 
CALL 

*-3 

*4P*-A»--«p>r>i 

n-ETPri#i 

to 
LB 

JP 

H.  1 

API   FA-fTWINI 
H.HL 

H?i 

DM 

-vuo  gw#rr4Mf 

Wf  T&f    -*ift* 

LI 

Hjl 

m  owmt 

AfT 

#,L 

P04~P»t«T-ft 

urn 

mjm* 

m 

t*APlP*Lf    i 

LD 

PITCH    IKH4 

LD 

PV*4i 

H..IAP 

fitch  m<t 

lC 

*f  fCH   HUH* 

LD 

WL, 

*m   "i 

LP 

IliTBP    ?>,**. 

l# 

im  ri  ,tt, 

HL 

Li, 

4..L1PP    AC 

L* 

Lt«  9fti 

PITCH   V*** 

LA 

ML 

fTtt>   s*A  p 

LA 

ML  .   '  UMIAK  . 

PtfllTi 

LD 

CALk 

DC 
■*L 

Iir-Avcf 

UM   Wi 

htflf      T, 

LD 

H.#  fUAPIADli 

LA 

nai 

LD 
LA 

m 

m 

ICP 

AMD 

N*.fPC 

iVAplADU    ^.k 
Dt  P  LD« 

Nk*H 

f.HP-LDDP 

A.Pi 

■ 

ipi 

IBPi 

m 

jp1 

,  ENE     « 

L0fl   *•■ 

Ptt&i  VNAi 

LA 

■4,  IVAPrAPi 

ML 

PKTCPt   «^i 

LA 

»*  .  I 

Ml. 

At 

t^W    IMP! 

L» 

iUAAlApLf    it, It 

LlH    *fr« 

PfffCH   W*P* 

LD 

PW 

n*  ,  ryppiAPLf     II 
ML 

*ttCM  WI* 

ID 

Ul 

HP 
OP 

■DC 

■c 

DE 
A 

ML^DJt 
**..  1 

1*1 

LA 

fDl 
J* 

l,Li«   «A 

lT?i 

pff  * 

■top  mi 

MMi  »#■ 

K   TO* 

* 

LIMt    PA 

^^_ 

In  principle .  this  "OPEN1  step  is  what 
allows  the  Spectrum  10  PRINT  10  the 
network,  screen,  printer,  Microdrive  or 
anything  —  the  PRINT  OPEN  com- 
mand is  normally  performed  auto- 
matically by  Basic's  PRINT  and  PLOT 
routines,  but  ZIP  must  make  a  point  of 
c;  nying.  thai  step  out,  The  sequence 
FETCH  13,  PR-CHRS  prints  the  new 
line1  character  at  the  end  of  the  mes 
sage. 


Listing  3  shows  the  final  machine 
code  produced  by  ZIP,  The  listing  is.  in 
Z80  machine  code,  with  labels  to  indi- 
cate the  Start  of  cuch  template. 

A  trick  called  'peephole  optimtsa- 
ationk  has  been  used  to  remove  re- 
dundant instructions  from  the  program. 
ZIP  templates  use  the  HL  registers  to 
store  temporary  results.  To  avoid  acci- 
dental loss  of  data,  at  the  end  of  each 
template  the  result  is  P USHed  onto  the 
stack  so  that  the  next  template  can  ret- 
rieve iL  if  necessary,  with  POP  HL, 
Quite  often  this  leads  to  wasteful 
sequence*  like  PUSH  HL  POP  HL  — 
one  template  stores  the  value,  only  to 
have  the  next  pull  it  straight  back  again 
Without  peephole  improvement  ZIP 
would  produce  this  cade  for  line  30: 

FETCH  2EI0  LD  HLD 

PUSH  HL 
STOHEIHI:   POP  HL 

LOpttHtAILEKI.HL 

ZIP  avoids  this  waste  of  time  and 
memory  by  using  the  variable  PEEP,  in 
lines  8050 and  8060.  In  line  8060  it  sets 
PEEP  if  the  last  byte  of  a  template  is 
229fc  a  PUSH  HI  instruction.  If  the 
next  template  starts  with  225  {POP 
HL)  and  PEEP  was  set  to  indicate  a 
PUSH  at  the  end  of  the  last  template, 
line  8050  deletes  the  last  byte  stored 
and  the  first  byte  of  the  next  template .  In 
this  way  line  70.  LET  X-X+l, 
become!>. 


A  ZIP 

also 


is 


FETCH  I: 

LO  ML ,  (VARIABLE  X] 

PUSH  HL 

FETCH  ME: 

LOHL  1 

ADO 

POP  OE 

ADD  HIDE 

STORE  INK 

LO  (VARIABLE  X|  HL 

Rather  than  the  unimproved  version, 
which  shows  clearly  how  the  templates 
fit  together 


FETCH  I: 

FETCH  ONE: 


ADD 


STORE  IM  Jt 


IDHinfrVRIAILEXI 

PUSH  HL 

ID  HI  1 

PUSH  HL 

POPHL 

POP  DE 

AOOHLOE 

PUSH  HI 

POPHL 

LO  |VARIA8LEJL|.NL 


Notice  thai  one  PUSH  HL  is 
deliberately  nor  removed  from  the  im 
proved  version  (after  the  FETCH  X), 
The  ne*t  instruction,  FETCH  ONE, 
does  not  use  the  value  so  far  —  it  doesn't 
start  with  POP  HL. 

RIGHT  AND  ROM 

Many  operations  can  be  written  direc- 
tly in  machine  code,  bui  [here  are  some 
which  are  very  complicated  or  involve 
lots  of  code  to  handle  special  6MM 
Rather  than  produce  hundreds  of  bytes 
of  in-line  code.  ZIP  perform*  some 
functions  \*uh  trails  to  routines  in  the 
library  and  the  Spectrum  ROM.  In  the 
example  program,  ZIP  uses  the  ROM 
routines  CLSH  OPEN,  RST  ERROR 
and  PR- STRING  to  clear  the  screen, 
select  an  output  channel,  issue  reports 


and  print  a  string  respectively, 

library  routine  called  PLOT 
used. 

If  need  be,  specific  registers  are 
loaded  before  the  routine  is  called. 
OPEN  requires  a  channel  number  in 
register  A.  PR -STRING  requires  the 
string  address  in  DE  and  the  length  in 
BC;  it  returns  with  DE  pointing  just 
after  the  string.  The  byte  following  RST 
ERROR  determines  the  report  di\ 
played. 

JUMPING  AND  LOOPING 

Intricate  templates  are  used  to  handle 
the  statements  IF,  FOR  and  NEXT.  IF 

is  converted  into  a  test  which  jumps  to 
the  11**1  line  —  skipping  the  rest  of  the 
current  one  —  unless  the  result  of  the 
condition  is  true.  The  effect  is  like 
writing: 

10  IF  NOT  [MARKS=  I  HOI  THEN  GO  TO  1 1 

HwrcHinr 

ZO  ml  il  prtifin 

Instead  of: 

10  if  marks- 100  nil  pflittrcHEJir 

ZO  ntf  il  pri|f*n 

The  first  fragment  would  be  impossible 
in  normal  Basic  because  the  PRINT 
doesn't  have  a  line  number  but  it  is 
easy  to  do  in  machine  code,  which  just 
trundles  through  the  statements  as  it 
finds  them,  unless  given  orders  to  the 
contrary.  The  GO  TO  destination  can 
always  be  "this  line  plus  one",  since  ZX 
Baste  doesn't  require  GO  TOs  to  be 
exact 

FOR.  1  .NEXT  loops  wt  more  dif- 
ficult to  handle  —  in  fact,  many  com 
pilers  process  them  unreliably,  As  we 
will  finds  even  ZIP  FOR.  ,.NIXI 
loops  have  their  idiosyncracies! 

WHAT'S  IT  FOR? 

The  FOR  statement  puts  the  START 
value  into  the  appropriate  variable,  and 
makes  a  note  of  the  address  of  the 
following  statement  ( for  the  NEXT  to 
go  to).  The  END  and  STEP  are  cal- 
culated and  stored  for  use  by  NEXT 

Note  that  when  Basic  encounters  the 
FOR  statement  it  immediately  works 
out  the  values  of  the  START,  END  and 
STEP  values  A  STE  P  of  one  is  assumed 
if  need  be,  These  values  are  not  worked 
our  again,  so  a  program  such  as: 

10  LET  C=5:  FOR  L=l  TO  C :  LFI  t=t: 

rnmmiErn 

will  print  five  exclamation- marks  The 
change  in  C  is  ignored  because  the 
END  value  is  only  calculated  when  the 
looping  starts. 

ZX  Basic  is  unusual  in  that  it  checks 
for  a  start  value  beyond  the  end  ( greater 
or  less,  depending  upon  the  direction  of 
the  STEP)  and  skips  over  the  whole 
loop  if  such  a  case  is  found,  This  is  a  use 
ful  hut  rare  feature,  and  ZIP,  like  other 
computer  Basics,  doesn't  recognise  that 
special  case.  ZIP  always  performs 
loops  at  least  once,  so  you  musi  use  an 
IF  test  to  jump  over  such  loops  if  need 
be. 


04 


ADDING  ZF  PART  THREE 


The  NEXT  statement  retrieves  the 
STEP.  END  and  the  address  of  ihc 
*bead*  of  the  loop  {the  statement  after 
the  FOR).  It  adds  the  STEP  (which 
may  be  negative)  to  the  correct  variable 
and  then  subtracts  the  END  from  that 
result.  If  the  result  i$  beyond  the  END 
(remember  to  handle  negative  steps 
again!),  the  program  continues  after  the 
NEXT  statement,  otherwise  it  jumps 
back  to  the  head  of  the  loop. 

CHEATING  IS  BAD! 

Some  compilers  cheat  by  storing  the 
head"  address  as  part  of  the  code  of  the 
NEXT  loop.  This  means  that  the  pro- 
gram fails  if  more  thui  one  FOR  is 
associated  with  a  NEXT,  since  the 
NEXT  is  'hot-wired*  so  that  it  can  only 
jump  to  one  FOR, 

Qihe  r  compi  k  rs  u  se  i  he  s  tack  lo  store 
the  STEP,  END  and  head'  values. 
This  brings  problems  if  Basic  program^ 
mers  try  to  RETURN  out  of  FOR. 
NEXT  loops,  since  the  values  on  the 
stack  get  in  the  way  of  the  return 
address. 

Both  of  these  cheats  are  allowable,  in 
the  sense  that  good  Basic  programmers 
won't  use  the  same  NEXT  for  more 
than  one  FOR,  and  they  wont  try  to 
RETURN  from  the  middle  of  1  loop. 
Sadly,  such  messy  programming  is  per 
fectly  legal  Basic,  and  it's  a  shame  if 
compilers  can't  handle  these  special 
cases  properly, 

ZIP  takes  those  special  cases  into 
account,  but  loops  are  still  very  fast  — 
1 10  times  faster  than  Basic!  The  ZIP 
approach  is  to  reserve  space  for  an 
END,  STEP  and  'head"  value  for  each 
variable  name  from  A  lo  Z,  This  ties  up 
156  bytes  which  are  only  used  during 
FOR. .  N  EXT  loops*  but  it  does  allow 
programmers  to  RETURN  and  GO 
TO  out  of  loops  without  fear  of  disaster. 
It  also  solves  the  problem  of  FORs  out- 
numbering NEXTs,  since  each  FOR 
stores  its  own  head'  value,  and  NEXT 
always  uses  the  most  recent  one  —just 
tike  interpreted  Basic. 

Using  this  technique.  ZIP  can  even 
detect  NEXT  without  FOR  errors 
C  LEAR  sets  all  the  'head'  values  lo  the 
address  of  the  ROM  error  routine.  If  a 
N  E  XT  is  found  before  a  F  OR ,  the  com  - 
puier  tries  to  jump  back  to  what  it  thinks 
is  the  "head4  of  the  loop,  and  ends  up  in 
the  ROM  issuing  a  helpful  report  in- 
stead? 

Armed  with  this  information  you 
should  be  able  to  understand  Listing  3 
—  the  example  program  in  fluent  non- 
biological  machine  code  When  you've 
digested  that  lot.  well  explain  how  we 
got  a  PLOT  statement  in  there? 

EXTENDING  ZIP 

One  of  the  main  design  aims  of ZIP  was 
that  it  should  be  easy  to  add  extra  fea- 


tures. Listings  4  and  5  can  be  used  to 
add  the  high  resolution  graphics  com- 
mands PLOT  and  DRAW.  The  com- 
mands can  be  used  almost  exactly  as  in 
ZX  Basic  —  you  can  specify  temporary 
colour  items  such  as  OVER,  INK  and 
BRIGHT  just  as  for  PRINT 


Listing  4 


to  raw 

779?  Lcr   **+™j~*v* •!*---»*■!  i    i_ir  c«ts?i    oq 

AJt   Mdi    Htm  up**i   ■? 

r™    OP   mm  fHtVI     IF    r>*int    MB   r-ow 
IHfN      |  #  T    %**-*t    OD  9U»   *rt«    UO  mm   bf 
**i     IO    r-m    l«*i     OD   MM    JBOi     GO    In    T7TV 

o  mm  **th4i  m  mm  «*t»  UE1  t-** 


The  only  restriction  is  that  Z/F  does 
not  allow  the  format k  DRA  W  *,y ,  angle'. 
We  omitted  this  because  the  ROM 
routine  used  to  produce  curved  lines  is 
very  slow,  even  when  called  directly 
from  ZIP.  It's  one  of  the  parts  of  the 
Spectrum  ROM  written  in  a  floating 
point  version  of  the  language  Forth.  The 
equivalent  machine  code  program  would 
be  very  long,  although  much  faster. 

Thai  are  two  steps  involved  in  add- 
ing new  words  to  ZIP,  The  first  is  10 
alter  the  compiler  program  so  that  it 
recognises  the  new  words  and  treats 
them  correctly.  The  second  step  is  to 
alter  the  machine  code  library  so  that 
ZIP  can  generate  code  for  the  new 
commands. 

The  DATA  in  line  5060  tells  ZIP 
whether  or  not  a  word  can  be  compiled. 
The  First  value  corresponds  to  the  word 
RNDS  then  comes  IN  KE  YS.  and  so  on 
through  the  character  table  on  pages 
186  to  1 88  of  the  Spectrum  manual, 
The  fourth  and  tenth  from  last  entries 
correspond  lo  the  words  DRAW  and 
PLOT  respectively  (CODEs  252  and 
246).  We  must  replace  the  appropriate 
Vi  in  line  5060  with  "y's  so  that  ZIP 
allows  those  words.  Change  the  line  so 
that  it  ends 


I  n stead  of: 

Now  Pass  I  will  allowthe  words  PLOT 
and  DRAW 

Next  we  alter  the  ' Syntax  parser1 
used  in  Pass  2  so  that  Z/P can  process 
PLOT  and  DRAW  correctly.  The  new 

Crogram  lines  to  do  this  arc  shown  in 
is  ling  4  Add  these  lines  to  the  copy  of 
ZIP  with  the  modified  DATA  state- 
ment. The  first  line,  7250,  checks  for 
codes  246  and  252.  If  either  is  found, 
line  7252  stores  the  request  number 
needed  by  the  code  generator  in  fcass^ 
mod\  Up  till  now  wc  ve  used  request 
numbers  one  to  58.  PLOT  and  DRAW 
will  use  requests  59  and  60.  But  first  we 
set  C  lo  52  and  call  Z80,  which  generates 
the  code  to  *open  channel  2\  re -setting 
the  colour  items  to  their  "permanent 
values. 

We  can't  generate  the  code  for  PLOT 
or  DRAW  yet  since  we  haven't  worked 
out  the  'parameters*  of  the  command  — 


co-ordinates,  INK,  OVER,  and  so  on. 
Line  7254  looks  for  colour  item%  h 
calk  GETSto  find  the  next  symbol ,  and 
checks  for  symbols  between  INK  and 
OVE  R.  If  one  is  found  Jt  saves  the  sym- 
bol number  and  uses  the  "MATHS' 
routine  to  work  out  the  value  or  expres- 
sion following  the  symbol.  The  calcula 
tion  LET  c=sep—  189"  converts  the 
symbol  into  a  request  number.  Then 
Z80  is  called  to  generate  the  corres- 
ponding code. 

The  program  loops  at  1  me  7 2  54  until 
all  of  the  colour  items  have  been  dealt 
with  Notice  how  MATHS  is  always 
entered  with  the  first  $ymbol  of  the 
expression  in  S.  It  returns  with  the  first 
symbol  qfter  the  expression  (here,  a 
semicolon)  in  S.  The  'GETS'  routine 
automatically  skips  over  spaces  and 
colour  items  in  a  program,  so  it's  a  fairly 
trivial  matter  to  process  a  list  such  as 
INK  3:PAPER  4:0 VER  If  without 
pmblen 

At  last  ZIP  finds  a  character  that  is 
not  a  colour  item,  and  execution  con- 
tinues on  line  7258.  This  calls  the 
"MATHS'  routine  twice,  to  process  an 
X  and  Y  co-ordinate  Then  it  retrieves 
the  original  request  number  (PLOT  or 
DRAW)  and  generates  the  code  to  plot 
a  point  or  draw  a  line,  Execution  con- 
tinues at  ATCOLON,  which  issues  the 
error  message  CALCULATION 
NOT  ALLOWED'  if  any  symbol  other 
than  a  colon  or  Enter  is  found.  This 
detects  the  case  'DRA W  x,y  .angle" 
the  error  message  isn't  very  clear  but 
it'll  do. 

ZIP  now  requests  code  for  PLOT 
and  DRAW,  but  the  library  still  doesn't 
contain  code  to  handle  those  com- 
munds.  Listing  5  is  a  short  program 
which  adds  extra  code  to  the  library  Ji 
should  be  entered  and  RUN  while  the 
modified  version  of  /JP  is  in  memory. 
The  FOR.  ..NEXT  loop  stores  the 
new  library  routines  The  two  GO  SUB 
6300s  store  the  vectors  wrhich  Z/Fuses 
to  find  the  routines, 


Listings 


•ft  m*    till   PLOf    %    PM»    H 
140   Lff B    *-*» 

JIM    Mt  fifi    .1.     ill     |-rt  q| 
119   *T»i     i.d 

■■ 
139    It    t*f»-9l     IP4H  *>    it*    H 

i  jo  #*i*t  *fum  i*  o*i »" 


1*0  in    t4UlSi    Lii 

sntPi  l  tr  i  i4xnti  mo  mm  **<-■ 

1*0  PTW 
sew   (Mill    A.^TSS^.S  .Yil 

, 

I0K   ft*f  *   »&,  J  v 

| 

ioa>  tiu  m,  i i 


Finally,  line  8040  must  be  added  to 
the  'code  generation*  routine,  ZIP  nor 
mally  works  out  the  length  of  each  tem- 
plate by  finding  the  address  where  the 
next  one  starts  The  templates  for  PLOT 
and  DRAW  are  out  of  order,  so  line 
8040  bodges  the  length'  value  in  J  so 
that  the  correct  length  is  used  anyway. 
This  is  rather  messy  but  it  works*  ami 


ONLY  THE  BEST  BECOME  A.... 

j  rj  ■  l 

fER 

» 


fi 


• 


A  SPECTACULAR  FLIGHT  SIMULATION  OF  THE 

WORLD  S  MOST  EXCITING  JET  FIGHTER  WITH 

STUNNING  3D  COCKPIT  VIEW  AND  THE  ^ 

MOST  REALISTIC  3D  AIR-TO-AIR 

COMBAT  EVER  SEEN  ON  THE 

SPECTRUM!  ^^ 

The  SUPREME  SIMULATION-  -*  " 

it  leaves  the  rest  at  the    ^***^ 

runway 

threshold! 


f 


HER 
E*TURf» 

hum  4  r  jfiwi^l  frtn 


£7.95 

inc.  VAT  &  p  &  p. 
Joystick  Cornpalibfe 
(Kempston,  AGF,  Sinclair 
Interlace  2,  Protek  etc.)' 


iirH3in^  toi  log 
t#itu'*i  trnJ  imp 


IpYtpm  'i'  j -Hi 

■old 


DIGITAL 
IhJTEGRATlON 


.w  hmooi  rude  ..1-1 ,-^ 

Watchmoof  Road, 

Camtofiey  Surrey  GU1&3AJ 


NIGHT  GUNNER 

4«K  Spfdrum 

1ft*  *r  fa*hM  wnm 
Only  K*l  Hj-nriW*  - 

wift  gum* 

••  «  Krtm  - 


-  Crash  Micro 


TAXI 
1550 
Any  Spectrum 

wid  1*tt  fOU«  Mum  WIZARDS  Of 

I  Mm  m  COMPUTER  GAMES 

SOFT  WARE 

Fui  tar  i'i  m«  tumefy 


it  ii 
following  f  arrwft  t. 
Ftghler  Pilot  4BK 
Night  Gunner  46K 
Focrt&nH  46R 
Ta*i  (Any  Spectrum) 


Specrmni 
>50 


Trade  and 

Evpon 

enquiries 


Lrletimt  C 
1  enclose  f 

iiiirinlee 

i cheque P 

CN^rt^tHiY«b^loC>gifil(pile9r«figf> 
n  In,                                         m*i 

Name 

Aflffci— 

vas 

Or  debit  my  Access  Aceouni  No 


an: 


I  |*m#mli  <vwftiM4  h  o«*i 


lift 


V A  T  Jrttf  P   A  P   tfKluftiYU  Mff : 

Pteaae  send  io  Digits  Fmngretion*  Depi 

Waichmoor  Trade  Centre  WaichmooF  Road.  Cam  belfry,  Surrey  GUI  S  3AJ 


OWiflWW 


1   ' 


saves  us  having  to  shuffle  the  entire 
library. 

Before  you  try  out  the  new  code. 
SAVE  the  new  versions  of  the  compiler 
and  library-  on  a  fresh  tape  Just  in  case 
you've  made  a  typing  error,  Delete  the 


[f  you  want  to  save  the  wear  and  tear  on  your  overworked 
fingers  (not  to  mention  your  Speccy*s  keys),  a  copy  of  the 
ZIP  compiler,  library'  and  demo  program  is  available  on 
cassette  by  post  from  Your  Spectrum. 

Priced  at  only  £150  per  copy,  inc  p&p,  the  tape 
includes  Hi-res  graphics  commands,  and  comes  complete 
with  instructions  and  notes  on  how  the  program  works. 

To  obtain  your  copy  of  ZAP,  simply  fill  in  the  coupon 
below  (or  a  photocopy  if  you  don't  want  to  deface  your 
issue)  and  send  it  oft  without  delay! 

Please  rush  me  copy ,'ies  of  the  /.IP  compiler .  1  enclose  cheque/postal 

orde  r  for  £         m  ade  out  to  ZIP  Compiler  Offer. 


Name . . 
Address 


Dj-h*a  .a*u4ji 


Please  send  this  complied  form,  with  your  payment. 

ZIP  Compiler  Offer.  Your  Specfrum,  1 4  Rmhbonc 
Place.  London  WIP  IDE. 


code  of  Listing  5  (leaving  line  8040  in 
place)  and  try  compiling  a  simple  line 
(ike: 

10  PLOT  0.0   DRAW  100  100 

If  all  is  well,  cKp^rirncru  with  colour 
items.  Should  the  computer  produce 
odd  results  or  crash,  check  that  you 
modified  the  library  correctly.  If  an 
error  message  appears^  check  the  new 
tines  which  you  have  added  to  ZIP 
Basu 

May  the  ZIP  be  with  you .  lis 


I  know  I  stated  in  the  first  pan  of  this  am 
cle  that  this  was  to  be  a  mere  three-part 
series.  We  IK  tough.  Having  lived  with 
this  project  for  the  best  part  of  six  months 
and  seen  it  grow  from  a  mere  hint  of  an 
idea  to  what  1  consider  to  be  a  cracking 
piece  of  code,  Trn  not  letting  you  off  so 
1  igh  tly .  I  n  ihe  f ou  rth  part  of  A  dding  ZIP. 
I  will  be  presenting  a  simple  yet  addic- 
tive game  in  ZX  Basic  Yes.  you've 
guessed  it  —  an  ideal  program  to  ZIP. 
Catch  me  next  month,  and  Jet  the  power 
of  ZIP  speak  for  itself. 
Simon  Goodwin 


From  bended  knesi,  we  it  YS  wish  to 
make  amends  for  the  mess  we  made  of 
last  issue's^  dding  ZIP  article  Therefi 
a  list  of  the  corrections  in  Frantfines, 
entitled  THE  DAY  THE  ZIP  GOT 
ZAPPED*,  but  if  you'd  like  a  photo- 
copy of  the  article  in  the  same  condi- 
tion as  it  left  Simon's  typewriter,  send 
us  an  SAE  and  we'll  bundle  it  off 
post  haste. 


P.  O.  BOX  B1  -  HEBDEN  BRIDGE  ■  W.  YORKSHIRE  HXT  SLQ 

Tah    (04221645375 


HUNDREDS  OF  TITLES  AVAILABLE,  SEND  SAE  FOR  LISTS  &  DETAILS  OF  SPECIAL  OFFERS  STATE  COMPUTER 


SPECTRUM 
rKuckw  lu 

I  AMrltr  >ll 
Huftlrr  Xijlc: 
Uunprmn  Miller 
K' \immrh  Horn  fff 

Mi 

BlF^IIffl 

Android  TWO 

i  ifiAd  Friv  EJxiwi 

l.hKimfcl*i  i   uilf 
^rrnir  MMIn  A'uR 
I  F"i-h  MulrTV   %     r  h 
t  i§M*r  PklmE 

It i  Sri  Millie 
furinkhipnun 
U!u*  Tnun4f r 
l,'ib*ft  I  piurt 
hlnJr  4llm 
|S*1ih«j* 
HiTTIffT   4IUCI, 


Credit 

Hn(tjfiLi 
I  JTlf  V) 

Dipiil 

&  Pn^trt 
Micrtvninii 


my 

n.90 
9,95 
7,95 
7M 

I  4  H 

s.9s 

3.95 
(I.Y5 
Ui 

*  *n 

MA 

%n 

7,95 
*95 
5.9J 
(  v* 
MS 
*.SO 
5-95 
IMS 
5.95 


wit  t* 

5.95 
B.5G 
*J5 
*J0 
*40 
1 1 M 
195 
1.95 

s.ss 

4,75 

5.75 

H  ?> 

S.7S 
*.7S 
§95 
195 
MS 
j  v* 
5.50 
M5 

IA.M 

4.95 


Scufri  Dim 
IlKk  Cry il il 
ApuClUpir 
Mlllioftjin- 
Urrtpta  nt  V(Wfc 

[ftuiftc 

COM  M  ODOR  I  64 

Duniri  in  Ditmi 
Bnndt 


Huiril 

I    intrll 


DJiori 
BuiBlHli 


Hyf  BLmrt 
AjtKtmnb  Adwnru- 
Hiuntcd  How 
S^ii**ti  ■  Itiff 
t*rid  Trip 
Junipin  Jicfc 
Tiiid 
Twin  ktnjikKi  Vnfey 

fttHM 
lllifffkl 

PynmW 
SfMif 


Irnrn1i** 
H  A   K 


JUHIPCI 


I  Nmip 


nug-n>tr 

Vmpf 

HuhMf  I ui 

Ftniiiy 


MS 

t.  so 

H.M.I 

AM 

js    ^ 


5  M 
T.50 

J  JO 

Ml 


(    is  S 


7.95 
7.95 
7.95 

Lid 

S99 
6.91? 
6.50 

9.93 


*,?5 

«.?S 
6.TS 
SJS 

i  n 

-  «ii 
urn 

■An 
7.*5 
j  i^ 
5.95 
5.50 
5-50 
i,S4> 


Suprt  I 

ft 

Ot^tHf4c  Slotif 

nd  Alt4l 

Oattecfc 

Omm  Run 

t  h,  fi.,*,t, i 

BBC 

[^ftmhtttlf  n 
lunif  RnciM- 
f-ruiP  MicliiMr 

HOH« 

<  Mvtte  50 


(  iirpor^tr  Climber 
\  *  m  mifu  S j  nciWdM 
Sp*nifJi  TuBnT  A  of  0 
T*in  Kiflfdnm  VB 


T  ml  Str 

i  h  fl 
MrCnip 
HrCVip 

Pir*inipun1 
i     J    R 

H^ldtwiffffW 


Pynibrti 


«90 
9*5 

n.iH! 
1.50 
7.50 

14    O 

7.95 

I.M 
7.95 
|  -^ 
6  95 
T.95 
T.95 
T.9S 
f.9* 

'Mfl 


5.95 

MO 

5,00 

1.50 

■  50 

luM 
11.7* 

CW/« 
MtLtS 

luTS 

*.I* 
*,« 

*,7* 

A     * 

5.95 
ft,TJ 

*7i 
#,75 
0,75 

?k9J 


TO  SOFT  MACHINE:  Please  rush  me  the  following  tapes: 


4  .... 5 

I  enclose  CQ/PO  No, 


O        .......        t       ■■       4       < 

...    fw£ ♦ 


Name:    . 
Address: 


SOFT  Machine  ,  P.O.  Box  B1  ,  Hebden  Bridfl* 
W«t  Yorkshire  ,  HX7  6LG 


■  +  §  >  i 


Soft  Machine  it  the  trading  nam«  of  FitKttr  Compute rt  Ltd 


67 


SSSKL 


e&ogra, 


9 


i 


• 


V, 


'*3&fefc> 


««* 


2* 


*» 


A*J, 


tie 


** 


£2£s 


"to* 


»# 


Smooth  Arcade  quality  throughout 


using  full  colour  sprites  *  Design 

wr  own  fufty  animated  Aliens.  Ship 

Missiles,  Explosions  •  Futt  attack 


wave  design  (8  waves  per  game) 
•  Moving  background  option  *  Futf 
sound  generation  *  Full  movement 
control  and  scoring  *  Save  and  MMMf 
VOUfl  OWN  games  to  and  from  tape! 

£1495 

SPECTRUM  48  K 

Deafer  enquiries  welcome* 


As, 


N%i 


to^* 


jj^S? 


#- 


*&&&* 


£0^0? 


V* 


<^>0 


'^  «fiS5fff. 


,^»> 


09 


.1*' 


tVe 


«^oW*- 


El 


PAPER     AT 


/A\ 


Software  might  be  the  success  story  of  the  'eighties,  but  without  the  hardware  boffins  just 

think  where  microcomputing  would  be.  John  Flenley,  logic  and  software  designer,  examines 

the  bookshelves  to  see  just  how  much  encouragement  there  is  for  the  potential  hardware 

freak. 


HARD 


SirClive  Sinclair  has  a  lot  to  answer  for. 
Apart  from  bringing  the  world  digital 
watches  and  introducing  a  new  word 
into  the  English  Language  —  'computer 
window1  —  he's  also  been  indirectly 
responsible  for  the  publication  of  liter 
ally  thousands  of  different  books  and 
magazines,  examining  every  possible 
aspect  of  ZX  computers.  Someone 
rumoured  that  half  the  trees  in  the 
Amazon  rain  forests  disappeared  into 
paper  mills  the  day  the  QL  was  announ- 
ced —  and  I  believe  it! 

But  let's  look  at  this  paper  mountain 
again,  I  said  earlier,  that  every  aspect  of 
ZX  computing  had  been  covered* 
but.  -  .  perhaps  that's  not  quite  true,  for 
there  does  seem  a  distinct  lack  of  books 
on  the  subject  of  DIY  computing.  The 
increase  in  availability  of  sophisticated 
hardware  has  not  been  matched 
(apparently)  by  an  equivalent  increase 
in  understanding  of  how  that  hardware 
iKfll<   Arthur  C  once  said, 

m  A  ny  su  ffi  aent  I  y  ad  v  anced  tec  hnol  ogy 
Is  indistinguishable  from  magic'\  and  I 
guess  that's  how  a  lot  of  people  view 
computers  —  as  magic  boaes. 

So+  at  the  behest  of  our  trusting 
editor.  1  decided  to  lake  a  look  at  what 
books  art  available  on  the  subject, 

SPECTRUM  SPECIFICS 

To  kick  off,  there's  Adrian  Dickens' 
Spectrum  Hard  wan;  Manual  pub- 
lished by  the  prolific  Melbourne  House. 
At  £5 .95  it  has  to  be  one  of  the  best,  The 
book  itself  is  printed  on  good  quality 
paper  and,  even  belter,  t  only  found  two 
printing  en-ors  —  both  of  which  were 
obvious  and  unlikely  to  mislead.  Mr 
Dickens  has  a  very  easy- to- understand 
style  of  writing  and  also  uses  illustra- 
tions to  good  effect  where  needed.  The 
book  covers  every  aspect  of  Spectrum 
hardware  in  minute  detail  —  what  it 
does  and  how  it  does  it.  Circuit  diag- 
rams of  the  part  under  discussion  are 
included  in  each  chapter. 

Both  issue  1  and  2  machines  are  dis- 
cussed and  illustrated,  and  I  imagine 
that  the  Marie  3  was  still  undergoing 
frantic  development  when  this  book 
was  being  written,  no  matter,  its  just  as 
valid  for  issue  3*  Another  chapter  is 
denied  to  fine  tuning  of  the  video  cir- 
cuit, something  that  every  Spectrum 
probably  needs.  This  should  enable  you 
to  get  rid  of  those  stubborn  colour  tinges 


in  your  whites,  or  those  striatums 
around  the  edges  of  characters.  You're 
also  provided  w  i  th  a  ci  rem  t  di  agrarn  of  a 
32K  upgrade,  which  should  provide 
you  with  enough  information  should 
you  decide  to  build  your  own. 

Other  projects  to  be  found  at  the  end 
of  the  book  include  the  addition  of  a  PI  0 
chip,  a  large  keyboard,  a  Spectrum- 
compatible  joystick  interface  and  an 
eight  channel  analogue  lo-digital  con- 
vert or  These  are  all  well  presented  and 
ought  not  give  any  problems  to  the 
soldering  iron  wietder ,  You'll  also  find  a 
complete  parts  list,  a  chapter  on  fault 
diagnosis  and  a  full  logic  circuit  of  the 
Spectrum, 


THE  HOWS  AND  WHYS 

The  second  tome  I  examined  was  Easy 
Add-on  Project*  For  Spectrum,  ZXS1 
And  Ace  by  Owen  Bishop.  While  not 
discussing  the  hardware  of  the  Spec- 
trum, it  (toes  outline  several  different 
build -it- yourself  projects.  All  require 
you  to  build  a  separate  address  decoder 
to  the  circuit  design  given  in  the  book. 
And  it's  here  that  I  find  my  first 
criticism    If  you're  trying  to  teach  a 


beginner  about  a  subject,  surely  it's 
essential  that  you  explain  not  only  how 
you  do  something,  but  also  why. 

The  address  decoder  is  the  basic 
building  block  of  any  hardware  project, 
and  the  choice  of  address  used  is  very 
important  if  you  wish  to  avoid  interfer- 
ing with  other  devices  attached  to  the 
micro.  This  is  especially  true  for  a 
machine  like  the  Spectrum,  where  the 
misuse  of  an  address  line  can  cause 
havoc.  The  book  explains  very  well  Aon* 
to  build  the  decoder  —  no  complaints 
there  —  but  it  doesn't  give  any  insight 
into  the  way  the  author  arrived  at  the 
choice  of  address  lines,  And  it  seemed 
to  me  that  the  design  of  the  decoder  itself 
was  perhaps  a  little  too  complex,  con 
sideiing  the  fairly  simple  job  it  had  to  do. 

Anyway,  on  to  the  actual  projects. 
From  the  way  the  author  makes  good 
use  of  household  items  to  build  the 
various  bits  and  pieces  I  get  the  impres- 
sion that  someone  must  bean  avid  fan  of 
Blue  Peter,  The  first  few  projects  were 
interesting  --  a  pulse  detector  ( a  simple 
device  that  you  would  find  in  any 
hobbyist  bit  and  a  good  one  for  starting 
with),  a  small  keypad,  a  bleeps  r,  a 
model  controller,  a  crude  picture  digit- 


69 


1 


SPECTRUM 
SOFTWARE 


CHOOSE  FROM  OUR  VAST  RANGE 

FREE  24  page  CATALOGUE  with  full  details  of  our  range  of  over  220 
different  programs  for  the  ZX  SPECTRUM.  All  hired  with  the  consent  of  the 
publishers.  Whether  you  prefer  to  ZAP  aliens,  get  lost  in  an  adventure 
game,  EDUCATE  your  children,  CALCULATE  the  family  finances  or 
COMPILE  machine  code  programs  WE  HAVE  THE  RIGHT  TAPES  FOR 

YOU  TO  HIRE. 

FAST  SERVICE 

We  stock  several  manufacturers  original  copies  of  each  tape,  and  can 
nor  ma  I  ly  despatc  h  you  r  ta  pes  the  day  we  receive  y  o  u  r  ord  e  r ,  a  nd  we  a  Iways 

use  first  class  post. 

LOWEST  PRICES 

We  believe  our  prices  are  the  lowest  of  any  library,  yet  we  offer  the 
LARGEST  range  of  titles.  TWO  WEEKS  HIRE  OF  ANY  TAPE  COSTS  JUST 

80p  (plus  40p  p&p). 

FREE  TAPE  HIRE 

Fora  limited  period,  we  will  send  your  first  tape  (your  choice)  FREE,  so  join 

our  library  now.  You  can't  afford  NOT  to!!!  If  you've  tried  another  library  and 

are  wary  of  our  claims  send  a  stamp  and  we'll  gladly  send  you  a  copy  of  our 

catalogue  •  we're  confident  youll  join  when  you  see  it!!! 


200  Mulgrave  Road, 
Cheam,  Surrey  SM2  6JT 


I  enclose  cheque  for  £6.00  for  LIFE  MEMBERSHIP  and  I  understand  that 
my  first  tape  hi  re  will  be  FREE.  If,  within  28  days,  I'm  not  delighted  with  your 
service  youll  refund  my  membership  fee. 

Name . 

Address 


YS/5 


PAPER 


iser  and  a  light  pen  —  but  as  ]  got  further 
into  the  book,  I  somehow  felt  they  began 
to  get,  how  can  I  put  it,  a  little  silly  It 
was  as  if  the  author  had  got  so  fed  up 
with  people  saying,  "Nice  micro  you've 
got  the  re*  but  wh  at  does  it  act  u  a  1 1  y  do  ? " . 
that  he*d  written  everything  he  could 
possibly  think  of  to  build.  And  around 
this  point,  he  seems  to  run  out  of  good 
ideas, 

The  magnetic  catch  (that  could  be 
used  to  let  the  cat  out  in  the  morning) 
and  the  lap  sensor  for  Sea  ie.t  trie  cars 
raised  a  smile,  the  'Heath  Robinson ' 
barometer  and  anemometer  caused  a 
chuckle  or  two  —  and  by  the  lime  I 
reached  the  sunshine  recorder  and  rain 
de  lector,  I  w  as  rol  ling  i  n  the  a  is  le  s .  N  e  x  t 
ti  me  someone  asks  you  what  your  micro 
can  Jo.  tell  them  that  with  the  addition 
of  some  extra  hardware  and  a  few  yards 
of  wire  trailing  across  the  garden,  it  can 
convey  the  news  that  its  raining.  ,  .then 
see  if  they're  convinced  of  the  useful 
ness  of  i  micro.  Honestly,  I  think  that 
the  last  few  projects  could  be  classified 
under  Inane  uses  of  high  technology*, 
however  much  they  may  inject  a  spark 
of  humour  into  the  book. 

To  be  fair  to  the  author  though*  alt  the 
projects  are  well  presented,  with  circuit 
diagrams  and  drawings  that  help  with 
the  construction  of  associated  hard- 
ware. But  although  enough  information 
is  given  for  the  beginner  to  build  a  pro- 
ject, it  would  have  been  helpful  to  have 
included  hints  on  what  to  do  if  the  thing 
doesn't  wort  when  completed, 

SAFETY  FIRST 

The  third  publication  I  looked  at  was 
Stephen  Adams"  20  Simple  Electronic 
Projects  For  The  ZX81  A  Spectrum. 
Here,  all  the  projects  are  interesting  and 
have  the  added  advantage  of  being  ones 
that  the  hobbyist  might  actually  want  to 
bu  i  Id  ( maybe  I  ought  to  have  a  go  at  that 
rain  detector?).  Full  marks  to  Mr 
Adams  for  his  inclusion  of  a  section  on 
the  dos  and  don  ts  of  soldering;  98  per 
cent  of  all  damage  caused  to  ICs  can  be 
attributed  to  faulty  soldering  technique 
and  it's  good  to  find  an  author  stressing 
the  point. 

He  goes  into  details  on  addressing, 
explaining  what  lines  are  safe  to  use  and 
why.  And  each  project  is  well  covered, 
with  adequate  circuit  diagrams  and 
explanations,  plus  a  photograph  of  the 
finished  article  —  giving  you  a  reason- 
able idea  of  what  you're  supposed  to 
end  up  with.  Particular  projects  in- 
cluded are-  a  tape  recorder  control,  an 
A/D  convenor;  a  light  pen;  a  shift  Lock 
for  keyboards;  and  a  very  useful  device 
for  turning  lights  on  and  off  around  the 
house  while  you're  out  (see,  all  you 
doubters  out  "there,.,  that's  what  a 
micro  can  do!).  Then  there's  the  man- 
datory burglar  alarm;  although  no 
details  are  given  on  how  to  connect  it  up 
to  a  siren  or  alarm  and,  somehow.  I 


don't  see  burglars  fleeing  in  panic  at  the 
sound  of  Lhe  Spectrum  BEEP! 

There  are  also  details  on  a  digital 
voltmeter,  even  if  the  range  provided  — 
between  -5v  and  +3,5v  —  gives  it  a 
rather  limited  use.  A  logic  probe  and 
standby  power  supply  round  up  a 
goodly  selection  of  projects.  Overall,  it 
seems  an  excellent  book  for  both  the 
beginner  and  the  slightly  more  ad  van 
ccd  hobbyist. 

COLLECTIVE  CIRCUITS 

I  m  not  really  sure  what  the  next  book  is 
all  about.  Sinclair  Spectrum  A  ZX81 
Add-tms  by  Natasha  Graham  and 
Michael  Roberts  should  perhaps  be  re- 
titled  The  Best  OJThurnall  Electronics 
Instruction  Leqflets,  because  that 
seems  to  be  the  amount  of  it.  The  % pro- 
jects *  inc tided  are  actually  programs 
that  you  can  run  only  by  using  one  or 
more  (usually  more)  add-on  units 
manufactured  by  a  Manchester-based 
company  called  Thumall  Electronics. 
It  says  at  the  beginning  that  details  are 
given  on  how  to  build  the  units  yourself, 
but  Id  suggest  that  no  beginner  could 
build  anything  from  such  sketchy  infor- 
mation. OK,  so  let's  assume  that  you 
are  fairly  knowledgeable  on  the  subject 
of  electronics  and  can  actually  build 
one  of  these  units.  What  delights 
await  you? 

Well,  how  about  the  m Disco  light 
show*,  that  turns  eight  LEDs  on  and  off 
in  random  patterns'.1  No1  Well,  then 
there's  the  visual  metronome  where 
four  LEDs  are  turned  on  and  off?  Oh 
dear,  you're  still  not  impressed.  Sadly, 
nothing  much  changes  during  the  rest  of 
the  book,  just  chapter  after  chapter 
offering  program  listings  enabling  you 
to  do  similarly  astounding  things  with  a 
Variety  of  Thumall  units. 

The  advertising  blurb  on  the  back 
cover  says,  "This  book  shows  you  all 
you  need  to  know  as  an  introduction  to 
hardware  design  and  microcomputer 
interfacing"  —  it  must  be  talking  about 
another  publication!  At  £5 .95 , 1  cannot 
really  see  it  making  any  kind  of  signifi- 
cant impact  on  DIY  computing. 

Next  in  the  queue  came  Interfacing 
Microcomputers  7b  The  Real  World  by 
Murray  Sargent  III  and  Richard  L 
Shoemaker  (what  makes  you  think 
they're  American?).  A  real  epic  of 
nearly  300  pages,  it's  packed  with  high- 
brow electronics  and  computer-based 
witticisms  along  the  lines  of  "the  trou- 
ble with  computers  is  thai  they  do  what 
you  tell  them  to,  and  not  what  you  want 
them  to  do".  Really*  it's  an  excellent 
book,  though  not  one  for  the  beginner.  It 
covers  everything  you  could  possibly 
want  to  know  about  digital  logic  and  has 
extensive  sections  on  the  Z80  chip  — 
including  programming  it  —  video  Cir- 
cuitry, raster  scanning,  disk  operating 
systems,  and  soon  If  you  already  know 
the  basics  and  are  thirsting  for  some 


advanced  circuitry*  this  is  definitely  the 
book  for  you, 

REFERENCE  READING 

Finally,  for  those  heavily  into  elec- 
tronics there's  An  Introduction  To 
Digital  Logic  by  A  Potion  —  a  goodP 
basic  guide .  B  ut  for  m  in  u  t  e  detail  of  pro- 
cessor chips  and  powerful  support 
chips,  then  take  a  look  at  the  designer's 
'Bible1,  the  Usbome  series  of  book* 
titled  An  Introduction  To  Microcom- 
puters^ A  trip  to  the  library  is  recom- 
mended for  these  -  or  else  you  may 
have  to  sell  your  micro  to  pay  for  them! 
And  youll  get  similarly  detailed  infor- 
mation on  most  common  TTL  chips 
from  the  TTL  Data  Book  from  Texas 
Instruments  Texas  also  publishes 
books  on  linear  circuits  and  memories. 
Most  of  these  titles  can  be  obtained 
from  university  or  polytechnic  book- 
shops, or  if  you're  not  that  dedicated  (or 
just  a  cheapskate}  try  the  libraries 
again. 

To  summarise,  for  the  beginner  I 
would  honestly  recommend  the  Adrian 
Dickens  and  Stephen  Adams  books 
and,  as  you  start  to  get  more  advanced 
—  or  start  suffering  from  insomnia  — 
Lhe  Sargent -Shoemaker  tome.  DIY 
computing  is  still  in  its  infancy,  but 
things  are  slowly  changing  and  I've  no 
doubt  that  sooner  or  later,  the  book- 
shelves of  high  street  shops  will  be 
crammed  with  suitable  publications. 
Try  a  tittle  DIY-  .  its  as  much  fun  as 
programming! 

Can  anyone  tell  me  if  it's  raining 
outside,,. 


WELODJtfMT 

Spf€tn§m  /fartf wr  Motmml  by  Adrian 
|>Ktenv  Melbourne  Hrav. 
ISBN OSA |A|  1 1 33 

Eaiy  4dd-*m  PrfyrcU  Far  Sptrlrwm,  /  1 1  -! 
if  At*  by  Owen  ftiitnp.  fWr n  jrd  ft 4 tarn, 
ISHN0  85W*i 


-?«  Stmpk  t;i*ctmnfc  /taptrtr  f«  Th* 
/.X&t  A  Sptclntm  lit  Slrphrn  4iUmi 
Interne  I*uHk:jIi«1I, 
ISBN  0907563  112 


St*. totr  Spttfntm  A iwT  ZXSt  444  <w  by 
N«|*ihi  G r ah*m  tad  Mich**!  Rntem 
Sum*  Tfchmcal  Pm*. 
lsEN0M5t0Jf.-il 
t<  13 


fftttrfyan*  Mfrrocvmmtttfn  J*  Tht  Hml 
H'lfritf  b>  Mm*y  Saratfit  and  lUhanl  L 
Shoemaker,  Addivm  Weiky 
ISttN  0  2OIOO77  W 

Aft  /irratfK-fKMi  fa  ftigtml  Logsc  by 
A  fatten,  MftcMtlUn  ft*M, 
ISRN*m467M 


Aft  Iwrodtction  to  Af fawiMpuftm. 
UntanttFf**! 


JTt  ttota  if- 1*.  Fata  ImininwiiL* 


T* 


4 'Throw out the  chips9*,  urges  Simon  Goodwin,  as  he  applies  the  age-old  formula  —  simple  is 

best  —  to  his  Di Y joystick  interface. 


You  can  add  a  standard  joystick  inier- 
face  lothe  Spcccy  for  nothing  more  than 
the  cost  of  some  wire  and  a  pair  of  plugs 
and  sockets.  The  Your  Spectrum  inter- 
face explained  here  goes  one  better  than 
Sinclair  Research's  one-chip  Interface 
2  —  it  uses  no  integrated  circuits  at  all! 
Despite  this  Ji  is  compatible  with  a  wide 
range  of  software  and  not  only  thai,  but 
programs  which  support  the  Interface  2 
will  also  work  with  our  Interface 
Zero, 

Like  most  hardware  projects,  Inter- 
face Zero  requires  you  to  make  a  few 
soldered  connections  inside  your  com 
puter.  This  wj|]  void  the  warranty  and 
could  damage  the  computer  too;  don't 
attempt  to  wire  up  a  joy  stick  unless  you 
are  fairly  confident  about  your  solder- 
ing ability  Interface  Zero  is  compatible 
with  issue  1 . 2  and  3  Spectrum s>  and  it's 
been  used  on  the  author**  Spectrum  for 


over  a  year  without  problems. 

Interface  Zero  can  be  used  with  stan- 
dard Alan  or  Commodore  joysticks, 
which  means  it  can  also  handle  similar 
devices  such  a*  Le  Stick,  Quicks  hot  and 
the  Competition  Pro.  Don  V  tty  to  use 


BBC  Micro  or  Dragon  joysticks  —  lh«y 
generate  the  wrong  type  of  signal. 

Unlike  Interface  2,  Interface  Zero 
doesn't  provide  the  facility  to  plug 
ROM  cartridges  into  your  system  If 
you  find  that  you  need  this  facility,  you 


p  iaimi  i 

ATARIJOYST1C  K  CIRCUIT 


BUCK      (D 


I 


1 


-   it 


! 


FIIE 


TIlO  Atari  and  Commodor*  Joy t«IC*a  work  d ha  «n*  tow  of  a  hay  array ,  with  four 
twitch**  for  ooch  direction  and  anotha r  tor  'Wirt'- 


SPECTRUM  KEYBOARD  CIRCUIT  | 

/ 

1 


r 


v*^ 


I r%J. r\X ^  J r*^? 


V 


I 


V 

1 


Y 


® 


1 


s^fi 


l_^j_^xi_^j 


y 


y 


^v 


V 

1 


y 


y 


i 


SYMBOL 

SHIFT  SPACE 


y 


y 


y 


y 


y 


v 


X t\L *\x /\x f^^J 


y 


y 


1?0» 
TJ»lfT 


V 


O-HI 


y 


i_^j 


y 


/u[ f*oc i^or 


PH    2 


y 


'/OH 


y 


y 


%JO-*\ 


y 


<D      (2)      (D       9        o 


BO*  SELECT  SOCKET  IS  PI  MS  I 


COLUMN  SELECT  SOt Km.  flN SI 


i  aba**  diagram  Ml  u  it  rat**  th*  way  th«  Spaetrum  keyboard  aparata a  via  a 
calta-clion*  of  on/orY  iwilc  h«  m. 


can  add  Interface  2  later  without  the 
need  to  remove  Interface  Zero.  Like 
Interface  2,  Interface  Zero  can  allow  a 
pair  of  Joysticks  for  two-player  games, 

T  he  main  snag  is  the  number  of  joys- 
tick 'standards*  about,  and  programs 
using  one  system  don't  always  allow  For 
the  others  Consequently,  a  joystick 
connected  via  Interface  Zero  won't 
necessarily  work  with  games  that  allow 
a  different  system,  such  as  the 
Kemp&ion  (port  31)  or  AGF  (cursor 
keys).  However,  unlike  the  popular 
Kemps  ion  system,  programs  that  alto* 
keys  to  be  redefined  (such  as  Gold 
Mine  from  Dk'Tronics)  will  work  fine 
with  the  interface*  and  it's  possible  to 
read  the  joystick  with  the  normal  Basic 
IN  KEYS  furtction- 
HOW  THE  INTERFACE 
WORKS 

Interface  Zero  works  on  a  very  simple 
principle.  The  Spectrum  keyboard  con- 
sists of  a  collection  of  on/off  switches, 
arranged  in  the  circuit  shown  in  Figure 
I  The  physical  layout  is  obviously  dif- 
ferent: Four  rows  often  keys  are  used,  by 
connecting  the  eight  rows  of  the  circuit 
in  pairs. 

The  computer  periodically  supplies  a 
voltage  to  the  row  select*  socket,  ener 
gising  each  row  of  the  key  array  in  turn: 
if  a  signal  makes  its  way  out  of  the  array 


72 


X 


ajM  PPW" 


Tutmkhamun 


P*ngy 


MMf 


.. 


•-; 


— rmwmmmm 


KOSMIC  KANGA,  a  mufti  screen,  amazing,  arcade  standard  original  action  game. 

Featuring  superbly  animated  graphics  and  packed  full  of  arcade  features. 

Help  KANGA  find  his  space  ship  so  he  can  return  home  to  his  planet, 

Leap  about  buildings,  trees,  clouds  etc.,  pick  up  bonuses  and  throw  boxing 

gloves  at  the  enemies. 

Keyboard  or  most  joystick.  48K  SPECTRUM  for  most  other 

Computers  soon. 

ONLY  £5.95  EACH 

Available  from  most  good  software  retailers, 
If  your  local  software  retailer  is  qui  of  stock,  send 
cheque/P.O.  to  Micromania,  14  Lower  Hill  Rd,, 
Epsom,  Surrey,  KT19  8LT\,  and  we  will  send  your 
order  by  first  class  post  free* 


on  Fore* 


LCJC  SLk 
ED 
SPECTftUM 
SOFTWARE 


i 


MICROMANIA 


4SK  Spectrum 


16K  48K  Spectrum 


5.0*' 


w 


'-J 


■ 


SOFTWARE  i 

The  battle  could  be  yours . 
'i but  it  won't  be  easy! 


^TW^f 


scs^ 


^jj^it*. 


above.  In  hfef  explr 
ration  of  ihm  On-J 


THE  PYRAMID 

fHE  PYRAMID  ts  an  arcade  siyte gamp iM^hfraav^acfrentufous 
feeUoH 

The  Pyr arrod  eontaim  120  chamber  on  15  kvefc  in  order  to  get  from 
one  chamber  to  another  you  must  ftghf  oil  ih&  indigenous  aliens  to 
collect  m  energised  crystal  which  wi  neutralize  the  force  fieW  guarding 
thefiweate 

The  Pyramid  «  mhaMed  toy  a  total  of  60  w^wd  and  erotic  a(*eri  types, 
ad  of  vtfich  are  beautifully  animated  *xj  wiW  meet  a  who*  *artety  of 
deniorii,  *oi&,  insect  and  n^^ 
iiTiisuaL!h*eJira-iefiw^ 

mutant  eye.  plus  a  uufipJe  host  of  entities  mat  defy  rational  description 
YbuU  no  dbuW  invent  your  own  nickname* 

tau  proceed  to  e^ptore  the  pyramid  from  top  to  bottom  with  the 
tiNHoultygfnefallyincfleam  Depending  on  tfie 

choice  of  e»n  from  -each  dumber  you  an?  Mkeiy  10  hAK  a  drfPerent  game 
every  time  you  p4ay 

Apart  from  the  challenge  of  trying  to  acneve  the  highest  score 
pass**  the  pyramid  contains  a  nurtter  puzzle  to  iolw  The  more 
chambers  you  suctessfojy  voir  the  more  information  rs  gathered  to 
enaWeyoutodtsco^rtnespecrfftTumb^  The  puzzle 

won't  take  you  dayv  to  sotve.  ft  wrfl  prooabfy  laice  you  a  few  month* 


DOO  M  SOAY  CASTLE 

DOOMSOW  CASTLE  consists  of  a  latsyrwihof  Mcomptefyrter- 
connected  Halls  and  Passages  where  you  will  meet  a  whole  hem  of 
adversaries  serving  the  mUrately  evil  Scartfm  the  Gartrirogv  the 
OrphM%  the  phenomenally  nasty  Goc^8ffd  and  th^Urtewhich 
manifest  tnefmeivtn  in  over  fifty  un^ifev^tbly  weird  and  wcrhderlU 
gutsa 

Scartfta*  has  scoured  the  Unwei^tDlwingtDgethwth^s«anc^ 
st  ones  of  Itfeforce  United  in  Doomsday  Cm&e  they  are  being  used  to 
wieW  an  inevitable  power  ewer  the  cosmoy  emanating  uraues  of 
tom^HJon  through  ewerygaiasty 

To  save  the  umvene/you  must  bat*  your  way  thn^ugli  the  Castle 
to  find  and  collect  the  si*  stones  and  Lwthetrtorceagainstk^thascto 
destroy  Doomsday  Casile ,  hopefully  i?sc  apmg  yourself  betow  me  Anal 
cataclysms  explosion 

The  task  Is  not  easy  (saving  thr  Urwerse  never  isi)  and  K  wHI  take 
you  many  games  to  unfold  the  itrtjmjn?  erf  OoorTtsday  Casde  and 
discover  the  locations  of  the  anoent  stones 

The  aAfccme  arcade  style  acnem  wiNt^ep  you  coming  ucft  to  play 
but  the  overall  challenge  should  vttH  keep  you  occupied  for  moridu 


FANTASY  SOFTWARE  is  available  from  W-H,  SMITHS,  JOHN  MENZIES,  BOOTS,  LASiCYS,  GREENS, 
RUM  BE  LOWS,  SPECTRUM  GROUP,  COMPUTERS  FOR  ALL  and  all  other  good  software  retailers. 

The  Pyramid  at  €5.50  and  Doomsday  Castle  at  £4*50  from 

fWWSY  SQFTWflE,  FALCONBERG  LODGE,  27A  ST  GEORGES  ROAD,  CHEUENHAM,  GLCE  GL50  3DT 
despatched  by  nm*m  first  class  post  together  wttti  free  membership  and  current  newsletter  of  the  Fantasy  Micro  Cluft 

Trade  Emetines  welcome  -  telephone  0242-583661 


(down  one  of  the  five  columns)  then  a 
key  must  be  deprived-  Since  the  Spec- 
trum knows  the  row  and  column*  it  can 
thus  work  out  which  key  is  pressed. 

Atari  and  Commodore  joysticks 
work  like  one  row  of  the  key  array  —  the 
circuit  M  shown  in  Figure  2.  A  switch  is 
used  for  each  of  four  directions*  with  3 
fifth  switch  for  the  *Firc*  button.  Of 
course*  the  physical  arrangement  of  the 
switches  in  a  joystick  uses  a  cross- 
pattern  —  moving  the  slick  simply  rocks 
an  arm  on  to  the  appropriate  switch. 

Sinclair  Research  has  made  things 
extremely  simple  by  connecting  the 
Spectrum  keys  ingroupsoffivc  l~ocnn- 
nect  a  joy  slick.  all  you  really  need  to  do 
is  put  the  Five  switches  of  a  joystick  in 
place  of  one  of  the  eight  groups  used  by 
the  Spectrum.  It  soon  becomes  obvious 
that  you  can  con  nect  u  p  a  joy  sti  c  k  at  the 
same  time  as  the  keys,  without  electri- 
cal problems  (the  computer  doesn't 
care  whether  it's  the  key  or  the  stick 
twitch  which  is  closed)  —  either  way  it 
registers  a  key -press. 

The  joystick  will  generate  signals  to 
duplicate  the  action  of  keys  '6' .  "7V8\ 
*y  and  fc0*  —  we  can't  easily  duplicate 
the  cursor  keys  since  these  are  split  bet- 
ween two  groups.  The  only  problem 
remaining  is  how  to  connect  it  all  up  to 


The  nest  step  is  the  tricky  one.  With- 
out opening  the  case,  turn  the  computer 
face  up  and  slowly  lift  of!  the  top  sec- 
tion, until  you  can  see  the  ribbon  cables 
linking  the  keyboard  to  the  electronics 
in  the  base.  The  cables  are  slotted  into 
sockets  on  the  circuit  board  —  you  will 
later  solder  the  interface  wires  onto  the 


back  of  these  sockets. 

Disconnect  the  keyboard  by  gripping 
the  cables  and  pulling  them  evenly  and 
squarely  out  of  the  sockets  —  he  careful 
not  to  fold  or  twist  the  cables  as  you  do 
this  or  you  may  have  difficulty  replacing 
them  when  you  have  finished.  At  worst 
you  could  crack  the  thin  c< inductive 


noun  4 

ISSUE  2  OR  3  CIRCUIT  BOARD  {SOLDER  SIDE} 


COIMECTOR 

L_F  LJ 

MODULATOR 
lOTHHSlOEj 

•  ••  •• 

6    7   I   0   0 
KEY  6E  IE  MUD 

c 

(cTjsPIAIEB 

If  you  hMvm  M  ItftU*  2or3  m»chm*  you'll  find  III*  column  *#l*ct  IOC  ■  »*  I Uiifltf  m W*y 
from  fho  modulator  —  thim  hji  duo  to  th*  circuit  board*'  ro-d«Blgn. 


FiGuulL  a 

ISSUE  1  CIRCUIT  BOARD  (SOLDER  SIDE) 


CONNECTOR 

l_l  i_r 

MOGUIATQB 
[OTHER  SIDE 

6    7    8    11 
KET GENERATED 

( 

C 
QjIPaKEH 

On  i»u*  1  lotctrumt,  th*  row  **l*ct  sockot  1*  poiitlontd  just  otiov*  th*  vpootor  and 
th*  column  *«l#d  sO£k«t  bolow  th*  modul*tor. 


the  existing  keyboard  circuitry  The 
Spectrum  circuit  boand  layout  was 
altered  in  each  issue  of  the  machine, 
changing  the  connection  points  re- 
quired for  the  joystick:  Figure  3  shows 
the  connection  points  for  owners  of  the 
je  I  Spectrum,  while  Figure  4 
matches  the  layout  for  the  issue  2  and 
issue  3  machines. 

OFF  WITH  THE  LID 

The  first  st e  p  i  s  i  o  open  u  p  t  he  compute  r . 
Disconnect  everything  possible,  then 
turn  the  machine  face  down.  You  should 
be  able  to  see  five  black  screws  on  the 
base  of  the  computer  —  one  by  each 
rubber  foot  and  the  fifth  at  the  right 
hand  end  of  the  edge  connector.  Re- 
move the  screws  with  a  cross- point 
screwdriver 


strip  on  the  back  of  the  cable, 

Once  the  cables  have  been  un 
plugged,  the  top  of  the  Spectrum  should 
be  completely  separate  from  the  base. 
Check  that  the  cables  are  undamaged 
and  t  hen  put  the  key  board  on  one  side,  f  f 
the  cables  are  cracked  you  may  have  to 
trim  the  damaged  end  —  but  be  careful 
to  cut  squarely  and  shorten  the  cable  li 
little  as  possible. 

The  circuit  N  »a  rd  is  held  in  by  a  single 
screw  in  its  centre.  Undo  this  screw  arid 
lift  the  board  from  ihe  base.  Turn  it  over 
so  that  the  solder  side  is  uppermost  and 
the  edge  connector  is  furthest  from  you 
Consult  Figures  3  or  4  to  identify  Lhe 
keyboard  connectors.  Issue  I  machines 
have  an  add-on  circuit  board  over  the 
edge  connector,  or  two  empty  chip 
ket,%  widely  spaced  along  the  edge  con 
nec*or  side  of  the  board. 

Solder  six  wires  to  the  points  shown 
in  the  appropriate  figure.  Use  thin  in 
Su  la  ted  wire  to  avoid  bending  the  circuit 
board.  Multi  coloured  ribbon  cable  it 


f  taunt  t 

JOYSTICK  CONNECTOR  WIRING 


©    ©    ©    ® 
DOWN   LEFT   MIGHT 

-U 


MOWN  GHEE  NUDE  WHITE 
MIGHT  LEFT  DOWN      UP 


FLUE  COMMON 

©  © 

SOCKET  FROM  SPECTRUM 


^4 


COMMON 
IUCK 


FIRE 

MED 


PLUG  FROM  JOYSTICK 


Th*  'stand  Hrd1  colour  cod*  t>  for  I  ho  joy  stick  plug  and  oockot;  If  th*  colours  diff»r  for 
your  particular  "slick,  you'll  hov*  lo  diiffmntl*  it, 


75 


ideal;  it  even  fits  in  with  the  Spectrum 
colour  scheme.  The  common  wire, 
'  marked  *C  *  in  the  figure ,  goe  s  to  the  n  fth 
pin  of  the  eight-way  connector.  Put  a  lit- 
Ue  solder  on  the  end  of  each  wire  — 
without  frying  a! J  the  insulation  — 
before  attaching  to  the  circuit  board. 
Use  a  soldering  iron  of  no  more  than  25 
watts.  If  a  joint  doesn't  "stick"  at  once, 
remove  the  iron,  apply  fresh  solder,  and 
try  again  after  a  few  seconds. 

Once  all  of  die  wires  are  firmly  fixed, 
they  should  be  taped  or  stuck  in  place 
with  an  adhesive  pad  on  the  back  of  the 
board.  Then  bunch  the  wires  together  so 
they  can  run  out  of  the  Spectrum  below 
the  MIC  or  EAR  socket.  Check  for 
solder  splashes  on  the  board,  and  make 
sure  that  you  didn't  accidentally  solder 
together  any  of  the  pins  of  the  five- 
way  connector. 

Outside  the  computer  you'll  need  a 
nine-pin  male  D-type  socket  —  the 
joystick  plug*  in  to  this.  Figure  5  shows 
how  you  connect  the  number-coded 
wi*e$  from  the  computer  on  to  the  soc- 
ket. These  sockets  are  quite  expensive 
—  you  could  even  end  up  paying  a 
pound  for  one.  An  alternative,  if  you 


nector,  and  reversing  the  order  of  the 
other  five  wires  (since  keys*  T  to  *5' are 
decoded  in  reverse  order,  as  you  can  see 
from  Figure  I).  Using  Figure  I  as  a 
guide p  you  can  decode  any  of  the  other 
groups  of  five  keys;  for  instance,  the  Q- 
W-E-R-T  group  used  to  control  Psssi 
and  Cookie. 

Many  games  written  before  the  Inter- 
face 2  was  released  use  a  similar  —  but 
not  identical  —  arrangement  of  keys  for 
Joystick  One.  The  Interface  2  assigns 
the  directions  *UPfc  and  'DOWN*  lo 
keys  "9'  and  fc8"  respectively,  while  pro- 

Sams  such  as  Timegate,  Earth 
efence  and  3D  Tunnel  use  the  op- 
posite arrangement 

This  interface  was  origin  ally  built  to 
allow  Timegare  to  be  played  without  the 
author's  brain  seizing  up  trying  to 
manipulate  the  control  keys  chosen.  If 
you'd  particularly  like  to  be  able  to  play 
one  of  these  early  programs  it  may  be 
worth  reversing  the  connections  for 
keys  '8'  and  '9',  Better  still,  fit  a  switch 
(double  pole,  double  throw)  to  select 
between  the  two  arrangements  —  the 
required  wiring  is  shown  in  Figure  6. 

A  word  of  caution,  however  —  since 


FIQUH  • 

DIRECTION  SELECTOR  SWITCH  WIRING 

DOWN 

(T)     F"n"                   r                     - 

-o 

UP 

, 

1 

^    SPECTRUM 

7t> TIJITITICK 

0  i         >0CKfT  ur 

1       o^ 

UP 

o- 

OOWH 

V*/    fPECTIUi 

^S^       TO  JOYSTICK 

~  ^  socket  oowr 

^^J 

A  tfMJf  n  for  t*fn*a  pl*y*r*  wanting  la  mmkm  IK«  m#il  of  th*  pi"  an* *9f  k*f  a. 


can " t  afford  or  find  a  D-ty pe  soc  ket,  is  to 
use  the  five  pins  and  outer " screen'  of  a 
DIN  plug,  chopping  off  the  moulded  D 
type  plug  from  the  joystick  and  replac- 
ing it  with  a  more  common  DIN  plug.  At 
a  pinch  you  could  use  two  pairs  of  stereo 
jack  connectors,  with  each  one  carry  ing 
three  of  the  signals 

The  colour  codes  used  in  the  joystick 
plug  are  also  shown  in  Figure  5.  Some 
sticks  may  use  a  different  colour  code, 
in  which  case  you  will  have  to  dismantle 
the  stick  (usually  a  simple  operation,  to 
allow  for  repairs)  and  deduce  the 
colours  used.  Commodore  joys  ticks  use 
pink  wire  for  *Fire\  rather  than  red. 

We  do  not  recommend  that  you 
solder  the  wires  from  the  joystick  direc- 
tly on  to  the  Spectrum  circuit  board, 
This  may  be  the  cheapest  approach,  but 
if  s  also  the  most  likely  to  leave  you  with 
a  dead  computer.  The  joystick  cable  is 
too  thick  to  pass  easily  out  of  the  Spec- 
trum case  and,  with  the  joystick  dan- 
gling from  it,  you  run  the  risk  of 
damaging  the  circuit  board  every  time 
you  pull  on  the  cable  or  move  the 
computer. 

ELABORATIONS 

The  wiring  explained  so  far  uses  the 
same  key-assignments  as  Interface  2. 
You  can  even  fit  a  second  joystick  by 
connecting  the  common  wire  from  it  to 
the  right*  hand  pin  of  the  eight- way  con- 


Interface  Zero  works  by  taking  signals 
out  of  the  Spectrum  box  and  down  the 
joystick  cable,  you  run  a  slight  risk  that 
the  cable  will  convey  external  inter- 
ference into  the  Spectrum,  leading  to 
unreliable  performance.  In  practice 
we've  not  found  this  a  problem,  but  it's 
probably  best  not  to  extend  the  joystick 
cable,  just  to  be  on  the  safe  side. 

TESTING  TIME 

It  i  s  poss  i  bl  e  to  te  s  t  the  in  terf ace  without 
re-building  the  Spectrum,  m>  long  as  you 
are  careful  to  keep  the  circuit  board 
away  from  conductive  surfaces.  Make 
one  last  check  on  your  soldering  and 
then  connect  the  computer  board  to 
your  TV  and  power  supply.  Plug  in  a 
joystick  and  leave  the  keyboard  dis- 
connected. 

As  you  move  the  stick,  digits  should 
appear  on  the  screen.  You'll  find '6'  and 
1 T  correspond  to  left  and  right  mow 
ment,  *8*  and  *9"  to  down  and  up.  The 
Fire  button  should  produce  the  digit 
zero,  If  any  of  these  values  are  trans- 
posed, you  must  have  accidentally 
swapped  the  connections  as  you  wired 
them  up.  If  a  single  digit  doesn't  work, 
the  appropriate  wire  is  no!  connected 
firmly  enough. 

If  two  adjacent  digits  (such  as  S6S  and 
'71  or  *9'  and  '0')  don't  work,  you've 
most  likely  accidentally  connected  two 
of  the  five  wires  together  at  some  point 


—  probably  by  using  too  much  solde: 
the  circuit  board,  If  moving  the  joystick 
has  no  effect  at  all,  the  common  wire  is 
disconnected.  If  joy  stick  movements 
produce  characters  outside  the  group  — 
*6\  '7  V8\  '9'  and  "0*  —  you'veeonnec- 
ted  the  common  wire  to  the  wrong  point 
in  the  computer. 

Check  that  the  stick  works  reliably 
before  re-assembling  the  computer, 
then  run  the  joystick  wire  through  the 
MIC  or  EAR  hole,  and  screw  down  the 
circuit  board.  Position  the  keyboard 
over  the  base  and  push  the  ribbon  cables 
firmly  and  evenly  into  the  sockets  on  the 
top  of  the  board,  making  sure  that  they 
are  not  twisted.  Don't  force  the  cables 

—  when  conrectly  positioned  they 
should  plug  in  securely  with  little  resis- 
tance. Turn  the  computer  over  and 
replace  the  five  screws  in  its  base 
(assuming  you  haven't  lost  them), 

TEST PROGRAM 

Listing  I  is  a  test  program  which  allows 
you  to  steer  a  character  arond  the  screen 
with  the  joystick.  The  colour  of  the 
character  changes  when  the  Fire  button 
is  pressed.  Notice  that  the  program  uses 
the  IN  command  rather  than  IN  KEYS, 
IN  allows  it  to  detect  instances  when 
more  than  one  key  is  depressed  (as  in 
diagonal  movement).  You  can  suit  use 
the  relevant  keys  to  control  the  charac- 
ter, even  when  the  joystick 
connected. 


Listing  1. 

ThhA  In  *  tftftl  program  *Mth  iliovi 

you  to  tost  four  now  ly-bulK  joymtic  fc , 

l« 

fi£rl    11    1NTWHFACF    fHW 

fl    D£mN&T»iM]tW 

CLB 

LET    k*1m    IF 

LET    aid 

j  40 

ISO 

*3& 

lei   t-:i*mr    n 

' 

r  t 

iao 

if   k      e    Mi* 

*«-  ■ 

if  t  >**  rw                      u   i.ci 

ir  i                                          fct 

.  ii 

• 

■ 

BO    TO    14 

Most  of  the  program  is  straight- 
forward, although  lines  150  and  160 
may  cause  confusion.  The  IN  function 
reads  the  keys,  giving  their  status  in  the 
bottom  five  bits  of  *K\  A  bit  is  RESET 
(zero}  if  the  corresponding  key  is  dep- 
ressed. Line  1 60  Mtt  bite  five,  si*  and 
seven  to  zero  (the  INT  expression  J,  and 
inverts  the  remaining  bits  by  taking  the 
remainder  away  from  3 1 .  For  further 
information  look  at  Chapter  23  of  the 
Spectrum  manual, 

IN  CONCLUSION 

Follow  these  attractions  carefully  and 
you'll  find  you  have  added  a  joystick  to 
your  Spectrum  for  a  fraction  of  the  price 
most  firms  are  asking  for  adaptor  units. 
Bon  chance!  Q* 


76 


HW/ 

OUTPUT 

Once  again,  were  throwing  out  the  pages  of  Your 
Spectrum  for  a  worthy  cause.  Like  most  of  us.  you've 
probably  got  loads  of  odd  bits  of  hardware  and  software 
around  your  bedroom  that  just  gels  in  (he  way.  WelL  here's 
a  way  to  solve  your  problems.  .  .  and  get  somvihing  you 
want  into  the  bargain. 

Simply  fill  in  t fit1  form  :ii  the  bottom  of  the  page  and  tell 
us  in  not  more  than  30  words  what  you've  got  up  lor  grabs 
and  jum  what  you  want  in  return.  Try  and  give  as  much 
information  as  you  can  within  the  30- word  limit      don't 
worry  about  your  address  if  ft'i  too  long,  just  provide  a 
'phone  number  you  can  be  reached  on. 

Of  course,  this  isn't  just  limited  to  swapping  software* 
you  can  also  publicise  your  club  or  advertise  for  a  pen  pal. 
Just  give  a  rough  idea  of  your  interests  and  let  them  get  in 
touch  with  you  —  could  be  you'll  find  a  friend  for  life? 

There il  be  no  charge  for  anything  placed  in  the  magazine 
—  just  keep  it  relatively  clean  (the  Editor  has  to  read  all  the 
entries,  you  know)  and  keep  'em  coming!  We  like  to  know 
ue  ve  got  some  interested  readers  out  there.  .  . 


Fill  in  the  form  below,  specifying  in  which  category 
you'd  like  WW  ad  to  be  included,  and  ^end  it  oft  to 
INPUT  OUTPUT,  Your  Spectrum.  U  Rathbonc 
Place.  London  W]  P  J  DE,  Please  use  CAPITAL 
LETTERS  and  keep  your  copy  down  to  a  maximum  of 
30  words  ( including  your  name  and  address  or  'phone 
number). 


rbetooapf  ef  Itoi*  fcrm  if  you  don-"  i  w#m  to  drfrct  yoyi  iune 

D  HARDWARE  O  SOFTWARE 

D  WANTED  □  MESSAGES 

D  CLUBS  &  EVENTS  D  PEN  PALS 


Name  .. 
Address 


4      E     +     *    +     I 


Postcode 


&j& 


vF&jd 


FOR  THE  48K  SPECTRUM 


Imagine  a  program  that  can  tell  you  the 
meaning  of  every  machine  code  word  and 
what  you  shoufd  type  to  get  the  computer  to 
do  each  command. 

This    program   along   with    its   instruction 
booklet  can  teach  complete  beginners  or 
semi  experts  and  is  now  available  from 
Peekay  Software  tor  just  £6.95, 
Write  for  more  details: 

To:  PEEKAY  SOFTWARE, 
DEPT  YS,  38  BERTON  CLOSE, 
BLUNSDON,  WILTS  SN2  4BE 


NOW 
OP 


s&r> 


M/€C0MPtt4#$ 


■*>/**-£' 


Uff 


m  Tim  h p*i  imt  i 

«whi-afrfiftfiitfi«itf0H4    ■  gnwi  mm  t^w 


*nc*r&vm& 


■A 


SPCCUU  OFFER* 
vot'«  ntisr  TWO 


if  VOt f  Vt*  T**t£  C&W**fl*P  / 


*.     SOFTWARE  UBRAftV 
NAME 

'ADDRESS 


(HMi  1  Hltal  I    mi   f* 

by i  iMT  •qM«i >wl      ■  If  r  ,»rwn t 

4tfU<h»trt-*l!rti*d«t*d      ■  VM>0^-X*i!r-». 

■*  and  AKDuAt  **•*•  tf  i  ipH  *Ad 

■  No  evfnpiicfltoti  wUmmm .  «e  c*^"^"i twi  I  it 
qttfinlfly—rmt  #h*l  *nd  ***fi  f&u  »u«      ■  P'  ■*.»■« 


1twm  an*  "**rUjfppa  n#«l*#tt»* 

_   '.  ■   N^IW^"^!^ 

F*rh:h#m  Ao*<j   Wm  LiM.  H*ntt  GU33  6JLi 
Much  in* 


Specul  oiltr  1ram  Ml  ittu*       LlPfc  MbMBEHSHlPfS 

<«g«rm*ilT   11*  ID,       O  W11  ituCM  OfVfl  HO    * 
Bfcl  HMt  &r*f*GMfl  ■  W     £**-*">     **«*     tttflifttf 

S*«giym    St*^nia.  j    Soul'  |  *-g    •  f*r>,j 

Int  Atplf  Coupon  *r..>  -  -  4  ymff  Hpnq , 




7T 


This  month's  Program  Power  features  just  one  program  —  and  it's  been  written  at  the 

keys  of  our  Y&ry  own  Peter  Shaw.  Complete  with  alt  the  thrifts  and  spiils  of  a  fruit 

machine,  Peter  has  managed  to  cram  in  a  few  extras  as  welt. 


KATAPILLA 


BY  PETER  SHAW  (48KJ 

If  you're  a  fan  of  the  old  one-armed  bandit*  { if  you  can  remem- 
ber them  thai  Ls!  i  you  re  going  to  Im ■■*.-  ihi  I  program*  Play  h  sim- 
ple bui  addictive  and  extremely  colourful  use  is  made  of  the 
Spectrum's  display, 

Dead  centre  of  the  screen  is  the  w  indON  to  the  action.  This  is 
the  equivalent  of  the  wheels  that  tumble  within  the  fruit  machine 
ind  comes  up  with  a  new  line  of  objects  and  fruits  each  time  you 
set  the  wheels  in  motion,  The  particular  piece  of  code  to  operate 
these  *  wheels"  has  been  written  in  Basic,  but  if  any  of  you  out 
there  fancy  con  ve  rii  n  g  th  e  rout  i  n  c  to  m  ac  h  in  e  c  ode  you '  H  muc  h 
improve  the  game,  1  ncidently.  Peter  would  be  very  pleased  to 
hear  your  suggestions  as  to  how  this  can  be  done  as  he  didn* l 
quite  manage  to  come  up  with  the  goods  by  the  deadline  (Lffe 
isn  V  a  line  &f  cherries.  Ed ) 

On  the  left  hand  side  of  the  screen  is  a  graphic  representation 
of  what  you  cm  w  in  providing  you  come  up  with  the  right  lines 
on  the  centre  window.  To  the  right  of  the  centre  display  are  the 
boxes  for  the  gamble'  routine,  which  wit!  be  explained  later 

The  boxes  at  the  bottom  of  the  screen  provide  you  with  an 
indication  of  the  options  open  to  you,  such  as  'Feature  Hold*. 
Hold*.  "Collect",  "Gamble",  and  soon.  You'll  get  the  idea  once 
you  gel  the  program  working,  Up  at  the  top  is  the  Krazy 
Katnpi  Hit,  which  can  be  made  to  grow  unii  I  it  reaches  the  right* 
hand  side  of  the  screen  and  hits  the  E2  symbol  —  no  prizes  for 
guessing  what  happens  then! 

You  start  ofTthe  game  with  H)  credits,  each  worth  I  Op.  Press 
Enu  it  the  wheels  spinning  and  one  credit  will  be  subtree- 

ted  from  your  rating.  When  each  of  the  wheels  has  slopped*  you 
wiSJ  be  notified  if  you  have  won  anything  and  the  Kra/y 
Katapilla  at  the  top  of  the  screen  will  move  a  certain  di stance 
towards  the  £2  symbol  If  you  are  lucky  enough  to  gain  a  'Fea- 
ture Hold  facility*  the  Kra/y  Katapilla  will  stay  where  it  is  and 
the  ne  x  t  score  w  j  1 1  be  added  to  its  length:  if  not  c  i  i  goe  g  bue  k  to  the 
st  art  for  your  ne  xt  turn .  S  hou  Id  you  get  th  e  n  1 1 £  |  M$t  "Hold"  flash- 
ing at  you  on  screen,  you  can  hold  any  or  all  of  the  wheels  with 
the   \\'T  and  V  keys  respectively. 


There  is  also  a  'Nudge'  facility  which  enables  you  lommc  the 
wheels  up  or  down.  This  is  done  again' using  the  I  V2fc  and  \V 
keys  to  nudge  the  wheels  one  symbol  down;  the  same  keys  are 
used  to  nudge  the  wheels  up.  but  you  need  to  press  the  Symbol 
Shift  key  at  the  same  time  Using  this  feature  carefully,  you  can 
iry  and  get  one  of  the  winning  combinations  shown  cm  the  left  of 
the  screen  and,  who  knows,  you  might  be  lucky  enough  to  get  a 
'Hohf  next  go! 

One  of  the  most  fun  features  of  the  game  is  the  'Gamble* 
facility.  Once  you  have  won  an  amount  of  cash,  say  20pT  you 
will  be  offered  the  chance  to " collect1  the  20p  or  try  fur  AOp.  On 
the  right  of  the  screen  there  are  a  number  of  h  *\  «  w  nh  figures  in 
each  -  for  this  ex  ample,  the  ]0p  and  3  Op  boxes  will  flash  on  and 
off  and  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  press  ihe  G  key  to  gamble  and 
then  press  Enter  when  the  30p  key  is  til.  You'll  then  be  offered 
the  chance  to  win  50 p  or  2 Op.  If  you're  not  the  gambling  type, 
simply  press  the  *€'  key  at  any  time  and  you  II  collect  whatever 
amount  you4 re  up  to. 

If  you  can  manage  to  ignore  the  game  for  more  than  a  few- 
seconds  I  no  easy  task)  the  computer  will  begin  egging  you  to 
'have  a  go  with  sortie  on-screen  messages  at  the  bottom  of  the 
screen,  These  can  obviously  be  changed  to  suit  whoever  bpU| 
ing  the  game. 

A  note  for  those  about  to  type  it  in  -    all  the  graphics  char. w 
ters  are  listed  as  lowercase  letters  and  ill  lower  ease  litters  are 
graphics  characters.  Got  it.1  Well,  go  on,  gel  on  with  it' 

D#Nd  c#ntro  of  tn# 
■croon  arotho 
'whoolt'  which 
com*  up  with  * 

lirlr  pf  fruil  Arid 

ofcjoctt  when  you 
pro**  €n(*r.  To 
th«  loh  of  th* 

•croon  or*  Iho 
pot «i bio  winning 
combination *P  to 
tho  right  *ro  th* 

JCimhltFbaE*t. 
AC  I h»  bollom  of 
th*  tcntn  in 
whin  you'll  find 
■  II  th*  m*«**oj** 
to  help  you  play 
th*  £*nt*. 


; 


78 


Unlock  Your  Imagination 


SCOPE  64     €/?q< 
(tope  or  disc}     ^fijpS  j 
Not  just  a  games 
designer  thrs 
remarkable  product 

will  revolutionise 
prog  ramming  Easy 
to  use.  supplied  with 
bumper  insUuCI'On 
manual  -  leHs  you 
everything  you 
need  to  know 
,  rJMM  OCd  »» 


tsptcmuw 


SCOPE  II 

A  complete  update  of  the  original 
award  winning  product  -  with 
many  Fantastic  extras.  Sprite 
routines  -  Machine  code  Peek  &  ^ 

Poke,  Will  run  your  original  program 
lot  ally  independently, 
Original  SCOPE  owners  -sendm  y&ur 
old  rape  &  £6  00  for  a  complete  updMte 
and  new  bumper  stie  mem/al 


;oMf 

tag; 

|_trulyoric 

jinal 

MLTmPLVS™**"?"^™ 


ames! 


SPECTRUM  SPRITES 

Today"*  g*m«^  nffd  *pt  ite* 
Her *  t <rw*rylhing  yr>u  need 

■m  know  elmjfl  EteaJgntno. 

end  handing  *pnle*<  All 
In  a  ur^lB  [Hk:h  with  full 
mitructron*.  Hindi*  8 

■  COllriiOfi  tUrfv  \ 

£795 


m> 


The 

CHARACTER  GENERATOR 

(  Another  product  eesential  for  that  u  ructue  and 
fc  p?afn*s»n#l  rmt*h  *a  important  \n  UkI  ay"*  pro- 
gram* Deugn  your  own  UDC  *  end  complete 
fc  character  *#ta  ft*  ■  Pi*M  gtid  (or  uky  «iw^ 
(nciode*  6  *p*ci*tfy  d*tipn*d  ch#f  ecter  ***» 
L  Compatible  with  virtually  aN  oih#r  m* 
coda  aorhMf*,  Big  manual  lalli  you  » 
need  10  ItAOw  TOO  m*ny  *tfr«  lo  lt*t  ham 


£  S^CTUuM 


Tit* 

SCREEN  MACHINE 

The  oaf m  it*v*  «*fl#n 
editor  lor  t*u«khng  and 
UHm^ing  graphic  lav 
suteAtrtt*  page*,  includes 
many  f  arilrtfa*  e***rm*l 
to  prttttuc*  f##*ly  pro- 
Ivnional  Kwn  layout* 
Supply  wr(t<  frg  manual 
With  full  in st ruction*.    ^rt  rtr- 


MONSTERS  &  MAGIC 

A  ctamc  aovantUTfa  genie 
raqumng  hard  Thinking  A 
qu»ck  t  vfie  *rv  Puriiet  lo 
*ofva  and  momtier  *  to  daf and 
all  m  real  time  Being 
i       modular  -  treasury  and 
evperujnce  can  be  earned 
forward  THafttittwo 
module*  are  T&gttrth. 

and  Tmmpto&tCttistifo* 

Enter  fel  your  peril 


**rt  SPECTRuii 


The  urtimate  u**r  tnendly 
lJ.imL.jIM'  You  dmon  m  many 
tailor  made  f4ing  aytlerti  s  tot 
whatever  pMrpote  Each  protected 
by  your  ov^ri  tecrat  tec 
codec,  Pull  irrtrucOon*  manual 
t  include*  WfFWT     -„-.- 
,ourf>r*ff.te  LB.^5 


SuperV 
graphic*  - 


£ndkmeri  atonal 
only  forth* 


BATTLE  PLANET 
Your  mMon  i*  to  fly 

(tnchit  launch 
a  plaftma  bott  into  the 
Battle  Planeti  heart 
Y<2hj  mult  «VQ4d  i 

Ftghten  will  l?omb 

i  fie  Robot 
commandar  ioth* 

inotnofll    ^r-i 

JOfcWflCr/'  i 
Sav*  JUuwibnrfl 


ifkioot 

Hot»| 
ombard 


10  BORDER  Oi  REM 
O  P. SHA*/ SPORT SCENE  1984 
20  REH  KRAZY  KATAPILLA 
30  REM  6  PETER  SHAW  1964 
40  POKE  23658,8 


XT    A:     60    SUB    1210 


Um  HMO  Seine  the  BORDER  colour  and swiiefi  the  heys  to Cws 

Lflct 


SO 

GO  SUB  2520 

60 

INPUT 

<M  * 

70 

PRINT 

AT 

3f 

lOi 

PAPER  3| 

INK 

Oi* 

YOUR 

SPECCV ! " 

60 

PRINT 

AT 

16 

.21| 

PAPER  8| 

INK 

:  9| 

"CRE 

0IT3' 

90 

PRINT 

AT 

13 

>23» 

INK  9|"000" 

in  50  ID 


The  'screen  set-up'  routine 


ICO  GO  SUB  16*0 
101  PRINT  AT  OtO|  PAPER  Of  INK  4f"ttu" 
110  LET  CRE-CRE-1*  IF  CRE--I  TTCN   INPU 
T  "NO  CREDIT-PRESS  ENTER  FDR  HDRE  "|  LIN 

E  Aft  GO  TO  10 


taoiiO  Finish  ofi  The  screen  layoui  and  ch«^  the  number  of 

credits  you  traveler! 


120 

PRINT 

AT  13,231  PAPER  6; 

|  f»o» 

AND  CR 

E<IO>+«"0" 

AND  CRE < 100» 

;CMf 

130 

BO 

SUB 

1210 

140 

GO 

SUB 

1320 

150 

IF 

NC- 

1  THEN   LET 

NOOt 

60 

TO 

170 

100 

GO 

SUB 

■00 

170 

GO 

TO 

no 

740  IF  B-l  THEN 

350  LET  BfO 

360  IF  INKEV»-"0"  THEN  LET 
1  TO  3i  LET  J(2,A>-J<2,A>+li 
6  THEN   LET  J (2, A) -I 

370  IF  B-l  THEN   NEXT  At  60 

380  LET  B-O 

390  IF  INKEY**-*-  THEN  LET 
1  TO  3t  LET  J43,A>-J<3,A>*I i 
6  THEN   LET  J(3,A)-1 

4O0  IF  B-l  THEN   NEXT  At  GO 

410  LET  8«0 

420  IF  INKEY»«-1"  THEN  LET 
1  TO  3i  LET  Jfl  ,A>-JU,A)-1  : 

THEN   LET  Jll,Al-l5 

430  IF  B»l  THEN   NEXT  At  BO 

440  LET  B-O 

430  IF  INKEY»-"2B  THEN  LET 
1  TO  3l  LET  J<2,A>»J<2,A>-li 

THEN   LET  J(2,A>»13 

460  IF  B-l  THEN   NEXT  At  GO 

470  LET  B-O 

460  IF  INKEY*-"3-  THEN  LET 
I  TO  3t  LET  J(3,A)-J(3,A»-li 

THEN   LET  J I31A»-13 

490  IF  B-l  THEN   NEXT  Ai  GO 

500  LET  NC-1 

310  PRINT  AT  20,1&|  PAPER  Bi 
"fAT  20,22|"   " 

520  LET  B-O 

530  FDR  A-l  TO  40  STEP  I2i 

NEXT  A 

340  FOR  A-l  TO  10*  NEXT  A 

530  IF  RU,J(1,1>)-R(2,J(2,1 
J(2,1>I-R(3,JC3,1>>  AND  VCRC1 
<>0  THEN   LET  PR-V(Rl  1 , J  U  ,  t> 


Um  1 2  0- 1 71  The  main  catling  loop  T  hts  ?au 1 1  ne  ta lis  all  the  suttfQuI  r ws 

lor  ttwf  genefal  running  ttf  sr«  program 


FLASH    If 


FLASH    If 


INK    6l 
INK    B| 


180   LET   FH-lt    PRINT   AT    IB,19|    PAPER 
INK    9) "FEATURE    HOLD" 

190    PRINT    AT    16, !2i 
ER   8f-ab- 

2O0  PRINT  AT  16,l5i 
ER  Bt  "mbm 

210  PRINT  AT  16,18} 
ER  8|"«b- 

220  IF  iNKEYf-CHRS  13  THEN 

230  IF  INKEY4-M"  THEN   LET 
NT  AT  16,12|  PAPER 

240  IF  INKEY*-"2" 
NT  AT  16,l3t  PAPER 

230  IF  INKEY*--3" 
NT  AT  16, 18;  PAPER 

260  IF  INKEY*-"C' 

T(2l-Ot  LET  T(3>-Ot 

270  GO  TO  220 


FLASH  If  INK  6 t 

RETURN 
TtlJ-lt 
Bt  INK  Bt-cb" 
THEN   LET  T(2)-ll 
B:  IMC  Bfcb" 
THEN   LET  T(3)-l* 
St  INK  Bt-et>- 
THEN   LET  Ttl>-Ot 
GO  TO  190 


Bt 
PAP 
PAP 
PAP 

PR! 
PRI 
PRI 
LET 


B-lt  FOR  A- 
IF  JC2tA>-l 

SUB  1210 

B-lt  FOR  A- 
IF  JC3.AI-1 

SUB  1210 

B-l I  FOR  A- 

IF  JU,A»-0 

BUB  1210 

B-lt  FOR  A- 
IF  J<2,A>-Q 

SUB  1210 

B-lt  FOR  A- 

IF  J(3,AJ-0 

SUB  1210 
INK  8]  " 


•OOl.Ai 


> )  AND  R(2, 
,J<1,1>> ,2) 
) ,2)i  80  TO 


560  IF  R(l, J tl,l > l-R<2,JC2,l> >  AND  V(R< 

1,JI1,])),I)<)0  THEN  LET  PR-V (R 1 1  ,J  <  I  ,  1 
)  )  ,  1  JOOt  GO  TO  990 

570  PRINT  AT  20,  16t  PAPER  S;  INK  9j  "NIJD 
G£" 

560  *CXT  R 

390  PRINT  AT  20,26)  PAPER  Bt  INK  Bt " 

■ 

60O  RETURN 


Mm  ?IQ  600  The  Hydge  routine  Notice  mat  in  lines  300  and  3id  it* 

IN  tunc  I  on  has  been  used  to  defect  if  rue  Symbol  Shifl 
key  is  being  pressed  i shown  &y  printing  UP  in  Ihe  Nudge 
Stilus' wfenptf) 


L«ti  1 10-ITI  The  'Hdtf  routine,  wNeft  tncfctfJes  the  Tetfure  HtHdT 

routine 


2B0  FOR  R»l  TO  INT  <RND#10I+1G 

Z90  PRINT  AT  20, 16f  PAPER  8t  INK  9|  FLA 
SH  li "NUDGE" 

3O0  IF  IN  3276A-253  THEN  PRINT  AT  20,2 
2|  PAPER  B|  INK  B|*UPW 

310  IF  IN  3276*0253  THEN  PRINT  AT  20f 
22|  PAPER  B)  INK  Bf "   ■ 

320  LET  B-O 

330  IF  INKEY*-*!"  THEN  LET  B-lf  FOR  A- 
1  TO  3i  LET  JUfA>-J  (1  ,AMIi  IF  J(1,A)-1 
6    THEN       LET    J(l,Ar-l 


610  PRINT  AT 
ECT"|AT    20,9j  ' 

620  PAUSE  2 1 
103O 

630  PRINT  AT 
"| AT  20, ¥| ' 

6#0  PAUSE  2l 
6fe0 

MO 
670 

6BO 
690 
70O 
APER 
7lO 


2C,l;     PAPER    8;     INK    9; -COLL 


IF    IPtCeV#»HCM    THEN      60    TO 


20fii     PAPtR 

eAHBLE^ 

IF    INKEVt-^B 


Bt     INK    9| 


THEN       fiO    TO 


80   TO   610 

LET    PQ-PR/lOi     LET    COL»0 

IF    INKEV*<>""    THEN      WJ    TO   6TO 

IF    PR- 100    TI«N      LET   PS«5 

IF    PR~SO   TI*N      LET    PSM 

PRINT   AT    P^PS,!! ,P(PS,2If    OVER    1;    P 

B|     INK    8;    BRI6HT    ir       - 

PRINT  AT  P(PS-1 , l>,P(PS-i t2lt  OVER 
If  PAPER  B|  INK  B:  INVERSE  If*  "|AT  P<P 
6-«-l«l),P(PS+l,2)|  INVERSE  0|*  ■ 
720  IF  IMKEYfO*41  AND  INKEVf<>-C"  THEN 
LET  PS-PS-It  JPRINT  AT  P  (PSf  U  f  P  <PS,  21  I 
OVER  I|  INK  B|  PAPER  6:  INVERSE  0| -  mt 
LET    COL- It    ©0    TO    770 

730    PRINT    AT    PfPS+1 , l> tP(PS*l T2I t     OVER 
t|    PAPER   8;     INK    H;     INVERSE    If"       H|AT    P(P 
8-1,11 fPCPS-1,2) |     INVERSE    Ot "       " 


80 


SOFTWARE 

- 

We're  sorry  you  Ve  had  to  wart  so  long  for  our  first  new 
release  of  1984  but  your  patience  will  be  well  rewarded. 

From  Bob  Hamilton,  author  of  'The  Pyramid'  and 
Doomsday  Castle'  we  present  BEAKY  AND  THE 
EGGSNATCHERS  and  introduce  Beaky  our  new 
star  of  the  video-game  screen. 

(Ziggy  is  having  a  well  earned  restf) 

Beaky  belongs  to 
the  family  of 
Andromedan  Armi 
Condors,  the  rare 
goggled  variety 


■"*5 


The  numbers  of  his  species 
are  dwindling  fast  because  of  their 
rather -foolish  choice  of  breeding 
ground,  on  the  planet  of  Crackit 
This  unfortunately  happens  to 
be  the  home  of  a  particularly 
evil  band  of  creatures  known 


collectively  as  the 
Eggsnatchers.  Their  sole 
malicious  intent  in  life 
is  to  extinctify  Beaky's 
species  by  stealing 
or  destroying  the 
eggs  by  any  foul  | 

means  available. 


B 


or 

pectrum  48K 

and 

Commodore  64 


and  the  Egg 
Swabcbeps 


Vbur  objective  is  to  try  and  brood,  hatch  out  and  rear  as  many  little  Beakys  as 
possible  through  12  different  screens  of  formidable  but  delightful  arcade  action. 

FANTASY  SOFTWARE  is  available  from  W.H.SMITHS,  JOHN  MENZIES,  BOOTS,  WOOLWORTHS, 

LASKYS,  GREENS,  RUMBEUOWS,  SPECTRUM  GROUP  and  all  other  good  software  retailers. 

Beaky  and  the  Eggsnatchers  Is  available  for  4SK  Spectrum  and  Commodore  64  at  £6.50  on  cassette 

or  on  disk  for  the  Commodore  64  at  (9.50  from 

FANTASY  SOFTWARE.  FAUCON8ERG  LODGE.  27A  ST  GEORGES  ROADr  CHELTENHAM,  GLOS  GL50  3DT 

despatched  by  return  firs  class  post  together  with  free  membership  of  the  Fantasy  Micro  Club 

Trade  Enquiries  welcome  -  telephone  0242  -583661 


■■»- 


Pat  the  Postman 

Really  of  iginal.  All  Pat 
hn  to  do  w  col  led 
parcel*  whilst 
avoiding  obstacle* - 
lifce  cars,  fires,  train*, 
etc  Skill  level  and 
Hall  of  Fame 

Mi 


Dt«ffendar 

Earth  j*  under  attack 

from  mutant  aliens  in 

an  accurate 

imp  I  omenta  Hon  of  ■ 

top  arcade  gam*  - 

and  ana  of  the  moat 

difficult  to  survive  In! 


a^BEfi 


One  Hundred  & 
Eight* 

That  famous  shout 
tails  you  what  rti  all 
about!  A  flood 
implementation  ol  a 
ditticuH  game 
double*.  treble*. 

em*  bull 
en  po**4b4e. 


LendofSagan 
A  quart  to  find  the 

long  lost  Staff  of 
Health   Ik  rt  m  one  of 
the  cast  lea?  Of  In  trie 
Tower?  There  are 
plenty  at  problems  - 
and  plenty  of 
opponent! -  In  this 
greet  grspNo 


eUIiitfcemElJa 


OUT 

FOR 

THESi 

GREAT 

GAMES 

FROM 

MIKRQ  GEN 


Lk 

aa 

•: 


Drakrnace 

Find  you  r  way  rou  nd 
Dracufca  s  domain. 
A  game  to  get  your 
teeth  into! 
«HpaamUJI 


*— 


Cruise  Attack 
Save  the  city  Irorn 
annihilation  in  this 
wonderful  version  ot 
an  arcade  favourite. 
Nine  tkm  level*, 
bonus  points  for 
attack  ship*. 


S** 


Creepy  Crawler 
An  authentic  version 
of  one  o  f  the  m  oat 
add  icth/e  arcade 
games  devised  All 
the  usual  features 
(Centipede,  Spider. 
Bug,  etc)  with  full  use 
Of  Spectrum  graphics 
and  sound. 


Leaerwarp 

Invader*,  Allan*,  this 
game  has  the  lot  -and 
yoti  have  to  survive  to 
deetroy  the  Master! 
Simple  controls,  far 
from  simple  task 
m  Ufctaai  CM* 


Nana* 

Catch  the  bananas, 
miss  the  coconut*. 
Easy?  Try  it  and 
Simple  in  concept, 
hilariously 
entertaining  -  If  tl 
drive  you  banana*. 
miprtrseitlts 


A  warp- space 
accident  spread* 


your  capsule  across 
time,  A*  you  land  in 
each  new  era,  tiraah 
peril*  face  you,  A  very 
skillful  graphic 
adventure 


vv: 

n  _*j 

sY  aajH        f*ear\ 
w^em 

•  ■'.  \ 

•%*   TWSW  *%** 

Mad  Marfan 

Great  sequel  to  the 
beat-selling  Mad 
Martha.  Hilarious 
graphic  adventure, 
with  hero  Henry  in 
sunny  Spain,  beset  by 
wacky  waiters,  mad 
bulls  and  the  wrathful 
Martha. 


SASAaaaurt 
Your  mission-  r 
the  Russian 
ambassador  from 
terrorist  kidnapper*, 
before  the  Kremlin 
declare*  war.  Loads 
in  two  parts  *  your 
rating  in  the  second 
depend*  on  your  skill 
in  the  first. 
m  »>sct*aictaf 


# 


■JLF* 


Knockout 

no  alien*,  laser*, 

invaders  or  rockets  - 

just  simple  but 

absorbing  fun  which 

up  to  4  players  can 

enjoy. 

«I  leathern* 


Galafciion* 
Watch  out  as  the 
Galakiions  break 
lonmation  to  attack  in 
such  force  that  no 
mere  human  can 
survive! 
MeeeaMaeaal 


See  them  at 
Lightning,  PC Sv 

Tigef  p  Co-op. 
Meniies/W  H  Srntth 

A  other  leading 
retailar* 

PHONE  YOUR  VISA 
OR  ACCESS 
NUMBER 


Other  great  new  Mikro-Gen  programs  coming  scran  -  watch  out  for  them! 

Please  make  cheques/ PO  payable  to  Mikro-Gen'  and  add  40p  post  &  packing  per  order 


ULi}il)>B 


Mikro-Gen,  44  The  Broadway,  Bracknell,  Berks  RG12  2TQ    Tel: 0344  2731 7 


740  IF  INK£Y*<>—  AND  INKEY*<>*C*  THEN 
LET  PS*PB+ii  PRINT  AT  P  i  PS  f  n  ,  P  <PS,2>  ; 
OVER  Is  IMC  8?  PAPER  B;  INVERSE  Oj  ■   "t 
GO  TO  770 

730  IF  [MKCY**-C-  T«N   LET  COL- 1 1  OO  T 
0  770 
760  SO  TO  710 
IF 


770 
780 
790 
800 
810 
820 
> 

830 
640 


1  THEN 
IF  PS-2  THEN 
IF  PS-3  T«:n 
IF  F8«4  THEN 
IF  PB-3  THEN 
IF  P8-6  THEN 


LET  PR-lOi  BO  TO  103r0 

LET  FR-20 

LET  PR-30 

LET  PR-30 

LET  PR- IO0 

LET  PR- 200 1  GO  TO  103 


IF  COL-1  THEN   GO  TO  IO30 

IF  INKEYSO"  THEN   GO  TO  B40 


850  HO  TO  700 


Uiti  ft! 04 SO  ThtCoilecr  and  Gsmbte  routines  Mas!  of  ihi$  section of 

code  deals  with  the  Gamble  learure  controlling  the 
flashing  boats  and  tSeodtflfl  which  of  Ihe  boxes  you  have 
chosen  based  on  the  w^i  saeond  you  Ni  irw  Entw  buy. 


B6Q  LET   PR-0 

S70    IF   RU1J(l,in*R(21J«2,tn    AND   RC2, 

j(2t  n  »-ftc31j<3,  li  )  and  vm(ttJCivi>ly2l 

<>0    THEN      LET    PR-V  <R<  1  ,  J  U  ,  1  J*  ,2)  i    GO    TO 
IF    ftfl|J<Itm-R(2tJ(21l>»    AND    V(Rl 


IJUiiD.noO    T«N      LET    PfW*«(  I  ,  J  C  1  ,  I 
11  ,Ui    GO   TO   19Q 

B90    IF    RM,J(l(IM-9    THEN      LET    PR-tOi     6 
D    TO    990 

900    LET    HO-0 

910    FDR    A-l    TO    3 

<?20    IF    R(A,J(Af  1)>>7    TtmH      LET    N0-MO+VA 
L    F»<R(A,JCA, 111 ,1,1) 

930    I4EXT    A 

9*0  IF  NO-O  THEN   RETURN 

*?50  FOR  A-LE+1  TO  LE+TOi  PRINT  AT  0,A-1 
I    PAPER  Bf  IMC    4f-tu":  PAUSE  A 

9*0  IF  A-27  THEN   LET  PR*2O0i  LET  LE-2* 

LET  FH**0i  PRINT  AT  0,2|  PAPER  S;  INK  8? 
-u  Nt  SOTO  990 

970  i*XT  Ai  LET  LE-LE+HO 

9Q0  RETURN 


Umi  160  SIO  The  routme  checks  tot  a  *nm  on  the  wheels.  Alter  Hit 

wheels  have  finished  spinning  and  have  been  nudged  rl  the 
option  was  open  the  resulting  line  is  checked  aoitfist  l  he 
wiroung  combinations  spirited  on  the  left  hand  side  of  iht 
serpen  10  see  it  you  have  won  anything 


990  LET  L*Oi  PRINT  AT  20,16|  PAPER  8)  I 
NK  B:  "      "i  AT  20,22|  M 

lOOO  LET  L-L+li  BORDER  Ok  BORDER  2*  BORO 
ER  6;  BORDER  4s  BORDER  1:  BORDER  Os  IF  L 

i>  THEN   00  TO  1000 
10 1 0  IF  PR-2O0  THEN   GO  TO  1030 
1C20  IF  PR>1G  THEN   GO  TO  610 
1030  LET  CRE-CRE+fPR/lOJ 

1040  FOR  A-l  TO  30  STEP  9*  BEEP  ,Q01,Af 
NEXT  Ai  PRINT  ill  AT  0,0;  M        VOU  WtN  * 
I PRi "  PENN IES ■ M i  PAUSE  1 00 
10O0  PRINT  11 | AT  0,O|" 

1060  PRINT  AT  20,  It  PAPER  B;  INK  8: 

•|AT  2Dt9|"        M?AT  20,16;  '       M  1  A 
T  20,22* ~   ■ 

1070  PRINT  AT  13,26- fLEN  STR*  (CRE> ) l     PA 
PER  B;CRE 
1OS0  LET  HE-O 

1O90  IF  PR-200  THEN   BO  TO  1110 
llOO  PAUSE  20t  LET  HE-ls  00  TO  1110s  RET 
URN 
HIO  FOR  A-l  TO  hi     FOR  B*=  I  TO  hi     PAUSE  1 


1120  PRINT  AT  PCA,|)  ,P(A,2M  PAPER  Bi  IN 
K  8;  BRIGHT  1|P*CA) 

1130  IF  A-l  THEN   PRINT  AT  P < 6# I > , P <6 ,2) 
t  OVER  I |  INVERSE  0|  PAPER  8;  INK  8j  BRI 
SHT  Of"   "i  GO  TO  1130 
1140  PRINT  AT  P<A-1 , 1) tPIA-l T2> |  INVERSE 

0|  OVER  If  PAPER  Bi   INK  Bf  BRIGHT  Q| " 

■ 

1130  NEXT  Bt    NEXT  As  IF  HE-1  THEN   PRINT 

AT  Pih* l}9PC*92t|  PAPER  8|  INK  8fME2"t 
RETURN 

ll&O  PAUSE  20t  PRINT  AT  4f23i  PAPER  8|  I 
NK  Bi    FLASH  If  OVER  Ij"   " 
1170  FOR  A-l  TO  40  STEP  8i  BEEP  .O0l,At 
NEXT  At  FOR  A«^0  TO  30  STEP  -9i  BEEP  . OO 
1 fAr  If  XT  A 
1180  PAUSE  30s  PRINT  AT  4t23|  PAPER  8}  I 

Bf  HASH  Oj  OVER  It"   " 
1190  RETURN 


L  ii  u  1 90  -  U  90  TM  'wm'  routine  Wtupn  yw  man  age  to  Jet  a  winfunn 

ihi$  routine  causes  the  flORDF  R  io  riasii  *itn  vanous 
coiiurs  and  a  message  Idling  you  how  much  you  hM 
won  appears  di  the  mi  am  of  ihe  saeen 


12O0   STOP 
1210   PRINT    AT 
PAPER    V;F*(R( 
vJ<j  t2J  5  ,2) 
1220  PRINT    AT 

PAPER  9|F«CR 
(I  vJ11,m  ,2> 
1250  PRINT    AT 

PAPER  9|F*CR 
(1  tJH  t3J  >  t2> 
1240  PRINT  AT 
PAPER  9(F*(R( 
,  J(2f 2)1  ,2> 
1230    PRINT    AT 

PAPER  9|F»(R 
(2(J(2li)>l2> 
1260   PRINT    AT 

PAPER  VjF#tR 
<2iJ<2,3) 1 t2* 
1270  PRINT  AT 
»APER  9|F*(R< 
TJI3,2M  t2> 
12BO   PRINT    AT 

PAPER  9|Fi(R 
(3«J (3*11 ) t2> 
12W)    PRINT    AT 

PAPER  9fF*(R 
I3,J  fSi 31  >  ?2> 
13O0    RETURN 


7,1Z|     INK    C<RI1,J(1V2IM| 
ltJ<1t2>l,l>iAT    Btl2|F*tRCl 

I0t12|     INK   CCRC lTJ(l,l))); 
(KJdJ))  ,  DsAT     U,12;F*tR 

13,121     If#C    CtRd.Jd.lM); 
tl#J<lt3> ) ,I>lAT     l4^l?;Ff<R 

7,13?     Ii§C    CCRf?TJ<2t2>>]| 
2«J(2V2>>V1MAT    9,13|F*(RC2 

10,13i     INK    CCR<2tJ42,  U>.i  ; 
l2f^fS9lilvll|AT     Utl3iF*(R 

13,15;     INK   Ctftf2,J<2,3>)>| 

(2fJ<2f3J 1 ,11 i AT  14, IS j Ft <R 

7,1R{  INK  CtRC3, J(3,2i > M 
3, J f 3,21 1 , n |AT  8,18tF*CRC3 

10,IB|  INK  CCRl3,J(3,irni 

<3,J (3, 11 > ,11 » AT  11 , IS|F*<R 

13#1B|  I»«  Ctft<3,J<3,3>l>| 
(3+J<3t3>> tl)|*T  l41l8iFi<R 


Umi  ! ZM- 1360 


Th»  routine  prints  the  wheats  of  th?  iryif  machine  in  ihe 
otrHf  i  ot  t  m  scieen  whenever  ihe  reels  have  E®  be  movnd 
—  duriiiQ  an  ftrxjifwy  spin  «  when  the  *ii*Gge  nptKin  ts 


16;    PAPER   Bi     INt     B; 


■ 


1310    STOP 

1320  PRINT  AT  20 

M|AI  20,221" 
1330  LET  CH-0 
1340  PAUSE  30 
I350  IF  RNO>.B  THEN   LET  CH-li  GO  Sim    IB 
O 

1360  IF  FH-O  T|«N 
S   FN*  Bi  "U 

1B,19|-  k't     LET  LE»2 

1370  IF  FH-t  AND  RND>*3  AND  CHOI  THEN 
LET  FH-Os  PRINT  AT  18,19a  PAPER  B;  INK 
I  w  :  OO  TO  1360 

1300  PRINT  AT  20,26;  INK  9j  PAPER  8|  FLA 
SH  I j "START* 


PRINT  AT  0,2| 


PAPER  B 
*|AT 


R 


83 


I390  FOR  A- 1  TO  2O0s  IF  INKEY*«CHR§  13  T 

HEN   BO  TO  1410 

1400  NEIT  At  GO  SU8  2210 

UlO  PRINT  AT  20,26*  INK  Si  PAPER  6;  FLA 

SH  O; "START  >fc ; 

1420  PRINT  AT  14,12f  PAPER  B;  If*  B|  OVE 

R  J ;  FLASH  0| ■ 

0    P«INT    AT    16,12?     OVER    t|    FLASH    Oj     PA 

PER   Bi     INK   8C* 

1440  FOR  R*l  TO  INT  (RND*S)+2i  FOR  A- 1  T 

O  3i  IF  T<A)-1  THEN   GO  TO  14O0 

14SO  IF  A*3  AND  T4A1-I  THEN   SO  TO  1900 

1460  FOR  8-t  TO  3:  LET  J  I A,B1 -J tA,BJ -I t 

IF  J(A,B)<1  THEN   LET  J<A,B)-I9 

1470  P*KT  B 

140O  NEXT  As  00  SUB  1210i  NEXT  R 

1490  BEEP  ,01,290 

1500  FOR  R»l  TO  INT  CRND*5)+2i  FOR  A-=2  T 

O  3*  IF  T*A»*1  THEN   BO  TO  1940 

1510  IF  A-3  AND  T(A>*1  THEN   GO  TO  1^60 

1920  FOR  B«l  TO  3i  LET  J (A,B>-J tAtB>-l t 

IF  J<A,BXI  THEN   LET  JtA,B>-lS 

1330  NEXT  B 

1940  NEXT  At  BO  SOB  L210t  NEXT  R 

1990  BEEP  .01,20 

15^0  FOR  R-l  TO  INT  lGND#9)+2l  IF  T(3>*1 
THEN   00  TO  1610 

1970  FOR  9*1    TO  3s  LET  J i 3 , B) -J (3 , B) -1 t 

IF  JC3VB><1  THEN   LET  J(3t8t»l9 

15B0  NEXT  8 

NEXT    Ai     GO   SUB    12101    NEXT   R 

EP    *01,2O 
FOR    A»i     TO    3i    LET    T(A>-Oi    NEXT    A 
PRINT    AT     I6,l2f     PAPER    B;      INK    B[ "J 


1390 

1600 

1610 

1620 

lb  *tom 

1630  IF  RND>.99 

1640  RETURN 


THEN   GO  SUB  290 


Um  1 3 1  DO  646       This  i ou  1 1 w  controls  the  mam  rtinnng  ot  the  program, 
calling  various  subroutines  when  necessary 


1690  STOP 

1660  RESTORE  1660  s  PAPER  7 

1670  FOR  A^USR  "A"  TO  USR  MU"+7 

1680  READ  U>  POKE  A,U 

1690  NEXT  A 

1700  DIN  F* 410,2, 2) i  DIN  RC3,l9>i  DIN  TC 

SI I  LET  CH-Oi  LET  LE»2 

1710  DIN  VflOv2)i  DIM  Pl(6,2h  DIN  Pf6,2 

>*  DIN  C<tO)s  DIM  J(3»3Je  LET  CRE**10t  LE 

T  NC-Or  LET  FH-0 

1720  FOR  A«I  TO  IO 

1730  READ  F#CA,1* ,FifAt2>  ,V<A, I J ,V<AP2>  , 

CCA) 

1740  NEXT  A 

1790  FOR  A*l  TO  3s  FOR  B-l  TO  19 

1760  READ  R<A,B>i  NEXT  B:  NEXT  A 

1770  FOR  A- 1  TO  6 

I7S0  READ  P*A,t*,PtA,2> 

1790  NEXT  As  FOR  A- I  TO  3i  FDR 

READ  J*A,B)t  NEXT  8:  NEXT  A 
I  BOO  FOR  A*  I  TO  6 1     READ  P*tA>s 
1B10  DIN  RS*10,32)r  FOR  A*!  TO 
Rt(A>t  NEXT  A 
1820  RETURN 


B-l     TO    3l 

NEXT    A 
10:     READ 


l  nt  i  II50-U29       The  ai ArMiH  routine  This  sets  up  the  arrays,  defines 
UDGs.  etc 


1B30  DATA  0,82,09,117,69,09,62,0 

1840  DATA  0#70i69i69(69t69tllBfO 
1B90  DATA  OvB7,B4.1 19,84,84, B7,0 
I860  DATA  0,0,1,7,19,19,19,19 
1870  DATA  0,0,128,224,176,206,208,240 
1B80  DATA  19,31,31,31,31,127,1,0 


1 


1890 

DATA 

1900 

DATA 

1910 

DATA 

1920 

DATA 

1930 

DATA 

1940 

DATA 

MO 

DATA 

I960 

DATA 

1970 

DATA 

1980 

DATA 

1990 

DATA 

2000 

DATA 

2010 

DATA 

2020 

DATA 

2030 

DATA 

Lin  1B3D-2D30 

240  ,248, 248, 248,  246,294,128,0 

0,0,7, 19,31 ,63,127,127 

0,0,224,240,192,236,294,294 

127, 1 27, 63f 31 ,19,7,0,0 

294,294,292,248,240,224,010 

0,31,99,63,63, 127,123,127 

O , 240 , 232 , 248 , 24B , 1 20 , 240 , 224 

63,61 ,63,31 ,14,19,19,6 

192,64,192,128,128,128,0,0 

0,63,0,63,63,39,42,38 

0,254,0,294,294,102,170,38 

42,42,38,63,63,0,63,0 

170,170,170,294,294,0,294,0 

126, 191 ,299,299,299, 126,60, 102 

124,294,245,254,240,292,60,0 


Contain  the  oata  lor  me  second  bank  of  UDGs  (from  A 

toU) 


"cta%l*4gl*tOT10O,6 

whi",-ikw,30,a0,2 

"hiM,rjk,t,30,90#3 

"hi*t-Jk",20t30,6 

»l**v*ftt*,20,Sftv3 

"pq'/rt*.  0,100,0 

"It/*,  */*£•■, 0,100,3 

M5*"1,,*5"1I0,0,6 

*4**,**4",OfO,a 

*3»%*»3"vOf094 

1  ,8,9,4,9,6,4,  10,2,8,7,3,10,4, 


2040  DATA 
2O90  DATA 
2060  DATA 
2070  DATA 

2080  DATA 
2090  DATA 
210O  DATA 
21 IO  DATA 
.m:?o  DATA 
2130  DATA 
2140  DATA 
9 

2190  DATA  6,10,8,3,4,1,9,9,4,2,7,10,9,4, 
B 

2160  DATA  9,3,4,10,6,1,9,7,8,4,10,2,9,4, 
8 

2170  DATA  14,29,12,27,10,28,8,26,6,27,4, 
29 

2180  DATA  1,19,2,1,13,2,1,19,2 
2190  DATA  "10p,,-2O",-3O",b-5O"i"£l"t"£2B 
2200  DATA  ■    I ~H   A  K^K-KRAZY  KATAPILLA* 
","  STILL  IN  CREDIT  -  NOT  FOR  LONB* , "  B 
Y  TROUBLESHOOTING  PETE  198*",*YS,  THE  BE 
ST  NAG  FOR  YOUR  SPECCY",'1  THE 

EXISTS?  *f "LET'S  SET  ON  WITH  THE  (SANE 
EN,M,W        WHY  ARE  WE  WAITING 
ON4!   ANO  AROUND  THEN**,"        BYTE  H 
-  NO  LIHIT^^OK,  PRE5S  THE  START  BUT 
DUHNV* 


e  ql 

E    TH 

D 
1 1  OH 

TON 


Lit  ii  2  04  Q-7  2  00       Contain  I ta  data  for  ih*  contents  at  the  w\m\$  the  value 
ot  the  prizes,  and  ttie  other  varwus  arrays  \n  itw  puxym 


2210  LET  KL-ls  LET  Kl-1*  LET  K2-13:  LET 

K3»10a  LET  K9«0t  LET  KA-1 

2220  IF  INKEY*=CHR*  14  THEN   BO  TO  2490 
O  PRINT  AT  PCK1,11 ,P(K1 V21 |  BRIGHT  li 
PAPER  Of  IMC  B|P#CK1) 

2240  LET  KL-KL+KAi  PRINT  AT  0,KL  :  PAPER 

0|  INK  4|wtu  -i  IF  KL>2B  THEN   LET  KA--1 
THEN   LET  KA»1 

THEN   PRINT  AT  PCfc, 1 > ,P 16, 2 
PAPER  6;  INK  a|P*(ft>:  GO  TO 


2290  IF  ¥i  I 
2260  IF  K1=L 
>l  BRIGHT  O* 

2280 
2270  PRINT  AT  P <K 1  - 1 , 1)  tP (Kl-1 , 21 z    BRISH 
T  0|  PAPER  Si  INK  B|P*(Kl-n 
22BO  LET  Kl-KI  +  li  IF  INKEVS-Ct«t  13  THEN 

GO  TO  2490 
2290  IF  M  7    THEN   LET  Kl*l 
2300  PRINT  AT  4,K2l  BRIBHT  It  PAPER  Be  I 
HV     B;  OVER  1;"  ■ 

2310  IF  K2*13  THEN   PRINT  AT  4,21 1     BRIGH 
T  Oj  PAPER  B|  INK    6|  OVER  Is"  * 
2320  PRINT  AT  4,K2-lf  BRIGHT  0|  PAPER  8; 

!NK  Bf  OVER  1 }' *  " 
30  LET  K2=K2+lis  IF  IN^'EY*^=CHR*  13  THEN 


84 


DO  IT  WITH 


Would  you  like  to  transfer  your  Spectrum  programs  from 

Q  MICRODRIVE  TO  MICRODRIVE    ©  TAPE  TO  TAPE 

0  TAPE  TO  MICRODRIVE  ©  MICRODRIVE  TO  TAPE 

Then  do  it  with 


ODDDaDaaao 

DDGnaDDDDD 

aaaaaaaaat 

annDDDDDaDi 


TRANS- EXPRESS  is  the  most  comprehensive  package  of  four  m/c 
utilities  for  transferring  Spectrum  programs.  They  are  user- friendly 
simple  to  use,  reliable  &  very  efficient.  They  go  much  beyond  where 
similar  attempts  failed,  enabling  you  to  transfer  any  kind  of  programs 
up  to  the  full  48.0  K  length  -  provided  you  do  not  infringe  copyright. 
TRANS-EXPRESS  is  an  essential  microdrive  companion  and  an 
invaluable  software  back-up  utility 

We  are  offering  the  entire  package  for  £  9.95  or  a  combination  of 
TAPE  TO  MICRODRIVE  &  MICRODRIVE  TO  MICRODRIVE  for  £  750. 
You  can  also  buy  each  of  the  four  programs  separately  for  £  5.50 
only 


TAPE 


TAPE 


Please  send  me  a  copy  of  TRANS-EXPRESS  ©  ©  ©  ©  *££  J*^ 
I  enclose  cheque/PO  for 

Name 

Address . .., 


(Please  add  C1-00  for  orders  outside  UK) 


YS 


E!#^A^t1C  S#3#t  H3  Melrose  Ave,  London  NW2 


GO  TO  2430 

2340  IF  KZ*22  THEN 


LET  K2*\Z 


2350  PftlMT  AT  4,IOj  PAPER  Bi     INK  5|  OVER 

t|  BRIGHT  0| — 

2360  IF  K3/2*INT  (K2/2I  THEN   PRINT  AT  4 

t!Oj  PAPER  B;  INK  7;  OVER  1;  BRIGHT  i ; " 


GO  TO  2450 
INK  9;  OVER 


2370  IF  INKEV4-CHR*  13  THEN 
2300  PRINT  AT  3tK3j  PAPER  lp 

l|-  " 
2370  IF  K3-10  THEN   PRINT  AT  3,21;  PAPER 

3j  INK  9i  OVER  It"  "»  GO  TO  2410 
2400  PRINT  AT  3.K3-U  PAPER  3»  INK  «?t  OV 
ER  l|"  ■ 
2410  LET  K3-K3+U  IF  INKEY*-CHR»  13  THEN 

60  TO  2450 
2420  IF  K3-22  THEN   LET  K3-IO 
2430  LET  K3-K5+U  IF  K5=20  THEN   LET  K5- 
Oi  GO  SUB  2510 
2440  GO  TO  2220 
2450  PRINT  AT  3,10«  PAPER  5;  INK  9j "VOUR 

SPECCY I " 
2460  PRINT  AT  4,10|  PAPER  Oj 
HT  Ot  OVER  If-    "|  INK  61 H 
2470  PRINT  ilt AT  0,0| " 


INK  5j  BRIG 


2480  FOR  A-t  TO  6t  PRINT  AT  P(A,1),P<A,2 

l|  PAPER  1;  INK  7fP*(A>t  NEXT  A 

2490  PRINT  AT  OtO|  PAPER  0|  INK  4|-ttu 

2500  RETURN 

2510  LET  K6*INT  CRND»lO*+li  PRINT  #I|AT 

Qf0;R*(K6)x  RETURN 


The  wailing1  routine  While  fira  piaytr  i  j  ml  using  the 
pay am.  tins  rout m  pr^nr*  up  a  rtunM*r  of  on-sown 

messages  lo  keep  inc  user  amused 


Urn  2 M 1-2510 


2520   PAPER   Ot     INK    9t    CL5 

253©  RESTORE   2520 

2540    FOR    4-U3R    ****    TO   USR    *J"+7 

2550    READ   ui    POKE    *,ut    NEXT    ■ 

2560    DATA   0,8,28,62,62,62,127,6 

2570  DATA  O, 127, 0 t 1 27, 127 f 127 t0, 127 

25 BO  DATA  0,02,  100,86  ,  26  ,  44  #  74  ,  O 

2590  DATA  0,8,63,62,30,28,24,16 

26O0  DATA  0,28,38,79,127,127,62,29 

2610  DATA  0,86,85,102,85,85,83,0 

2620  DATA  0,39,81,114,82,84,87,0 

2630  DATA  0,80,80,32,32,32,32,0 

2640  DATA  126,191,255,255,253,126,60,102 

2630  DATA  124,254,243,254,240,252,60,0 

2660  PRINT  AT  4tlOi  INK  5|H*9h"t  INK  6l H 

KATAMLLA" 


Un  U2Q-2MD        Canfain  If*  data  1»  m  "it si  bank  ol  UDGs  (Irani  A  io  J> 
li«M  aft  used  in  draw  on  (he  sc*«n  aid  include  trie 
symbols  tjtspl-iytt)  t-n  the  w »«  inlonnalKm  windows  and 
the  littte  leiiei s  which  make  up  the  wwd  KRAZY 


2670  PRINT    AT    6,lli"fiAT    6,20**1"  (AT    13 

,II|"ftBlAT    1S(20|-JM 

2680  PLOT  BO, 88 i  DRAW  79,0 

2690  PLOT  88,87i  DRAW  79,0 

270O  PLOT  88,124;  DRAW  79,0 

2710  PLOT  88,128:  DRAW  79,0 

2720  PLOT  88,48f  DRAW  79, O 

2730  PLOT  88,321  DRAW  79 t0 

2740  PLOT  B8*4Qt  DRAW  0,79 

2730  PLOT  167,48:  DRAW  0,79 

2760  PLOT  116, 52i  DRAW  0,71 

2770  PLOT  113,921  DRAW  0,71 

2780  PLOT  140,321  DRAW  0,71 

2790  PLOT  139,52:  DRAW  0,71 


2BOO  PAPER  1 

2810  PRINT  AT  3,24| M 

2820  PRINT  AT  4124fh  £2  " 

2B30  PRINT  AT  3,24;" 

204O  PRINT  AT  6,261"  £1  " 

2830  PRINT  AT  7,25j" 

2B60  PRINT  AT  B,25|w  SO  " 

2B70  PRINT  AT  9,25)" 

2880  PRINT  AT  iO>27| ■"  30  H 

2890  PRINT  AT  11,26; " 

29O0  PRINT  AT  I2,26(*  20  M 

2910  PRINT  AT  13,26* ■ 

2920  PRINT  AT  14,2SjH  ID  * 

2930  PRINT  AT  13t28|w 

2940  PAPER  O 

2950  PLOT  191,132i  DRAW  32t0i  DRAW  0,-24 

i     DRAW  -32, Ot  DRAW  0,24 

2960  PLOT  224,136i  DRAW  16, Ot  DRAW  0,-24 

a  DRAW  -32, Ol  DRAW  0,14 

2970  PLOT  207, 120 i  DRAW  -B,Oi  DRAW  0,-24 

i  DRAW  32,0t  DRAW  0f14 

2980  PLOT  232,l04i  DRAW  16, Oi  DRAW  0,-24 

i  DRAW  -32,03  DRAW  0,14 

2990  PLOT  213,88*  DRAW  -8, Ox  DRAW  0,-24i 

DRAW  32, Ol  DRAW  0,14 
3000  PLOT  240,72i  DRAW  l3,Oi  DRAW  0,-24t 

DRAW  -31, Ot  DRAW  0,14 

inn  HDd-ldDD       Draw  Ihc  Gamble  feature  bo*« 

301O  PLOT  207,16s  DRAW  41  ,0t  DRAW  0,-9i 

DRAW  -41, Oi  DRAW  0,9t  PRINT  AT  20,26]  PA 

PER  2: M 

3020  PLOT  175, 16t  DRAW  17t0i  DRAW  0,-9: 

DRAW  -17, Oi  DRAW  0,9i  PRINT  AT  20,22)  PA 

PER  3|*   * 

3030  PLOT  127,l6i  DRAW  4l,0t  DRAW  ©,-9t 

DRAW  -4l,0i  DRAW  0,9i  PRINT  AT  20,161  PA 

PER  Sp" 

3O40  PLOT  71,16:  DRAW  49, Oi  DRAW  0,-9i  D 

RAW  -49, Ot  DRAW  Ot9i  PRINT  AT  20, 9|  PAPE 

R  3|" 

3050  PLOT  7,16:  DRAW  57, Ot  DRAW  0,-9i  DR 

AW  -57, Oi  DRAW  0,9i  PRINT  AT  20,  Ij  PAPER 

5f  ■ 
3060  PLOT  151,321  DRAW  97, Ot    DRAW  0,-9i 
DRAW  -97, Ot  DRAW  0,9i  PRINT  AT  1B,19|  PA 
PER  5c" 


Lit ?  301 Q  30(0       Draw  chc  mtormation  windows  at  the  bottom  ol  the  K*e*n 


3070  PLOT  7,132:  DRAW  49,0i  DRAW  0,-26t 

DRAW  -49, Oi  DRAW  0,26 

30B0    PRINT    AT    3,1|     INK    6|««< 

C1"|AT    4,l|Hbt)b    ClHiAT    3,  It 

I     INK    7frt£l* 

3O90  PLOT  23,120s  DRAW  49, Oi  DRAW  0,-26t 

DRAW  -49, Oi  DRAW  0,26 
3100  PRINT  AT  7,3|  INT 
30"|AT  8,3|  l**t    3t"v» 
9,3|  INK  3t4ddd  **t  INK 
3110  PLOT  15,88:  DRAW 
DRAW  -49, Os  DRAW  0,26 
3120  PRINT  AT  11,2*  INK  6; 
"SO^iAT  12,2i  INK  ?|  " w-  -;  INK 
T  13t2|  INK  3t-*»-  "|  INK  7tw30w 

O    PLOT  31*56:  DRAW  49, Oi  DRAW  0,-26: 
DRAW  -49, Ot  DRAW  0,26 

3140  PRINT  AT  13, 4|   INK  6f  MH-  M|  INK  /; 
"20" | A?  16,4;   INK  3; "dd-  "|  INK  7|"20"lA 
T  17,4:   TNK  3|^d--  Hf  INK  7|-tQ" 
^160  PRINT  AT  I ,30; " i 
3170  RETURN 


tm    mi     INK  7| 
INK  Si^ccc 


2|" 

"|  INK 

7i"50" 
49, Ot  DRAW 


7l 


INK  7 i ■ 
30MtAT 

0,-26t 


';  ink 
7|M30' 


75 
8  A 


bin  ZBTI-27M       Dnw  the  wttds  m  rr*  cwife  of  ine  ^ciMfr 


Utit  307011 71        Drawlhtwrn  informafion  tones mn frtuffi  to  thr  ma,n 
PSBTM  ■ 


86 


I  G  •  I 


I 


'E  YEAR  OF  THE  GAME  LORD: 


COMMODORE  i 


fODOFFW 


An***  Mfutrnm 


FLEA} 


nwdsNMp 


Dutf  bf«3Vf  of  tfw  Hmrsome 
Drm&&routum0*tekma 
mmmcvegdtMiton 


49K  SPECTRUM 


**nctwning  gpm#  diMd 
i0#ft*yr?mtc* 

sr 

KT7IUM 


ICMf 


A  .     fr  _i- »  "   -* —  —  — 


4aKSPf£ 
Aunof'SM 


C«««  flffff<e  Draper 


P*trU 


uganwv 
evwrmsu 


Ac*oo  t 
PmmkM 

mmutt*  monatrvu*  t 


WSP£C 
C0*W0DOMfr« 
MCA?  i  MorfKJ 
QHAQQH 
BBC  MODEL 


TURTLES 
DOT 


Author  John  HoAti 
M*  ■ 


AM  r/M  mvmto&l*  from  Qutcktit**  tMt  OrOm 
PO  Box  6,  Wtmborrw  Daratt  042!  TP* 


apaemiw  compaim  4tpcfr4*i». 


*  jj— — ■ —  ■■■■« r  -.■--■_. 


<£ 


& 


w£ 


.a 


CIRCEI 


In  a  never-to-be-forgotten  journey,  Phil  Manchester  breached  the  icy  wastes  of  the  south,  in 
search  of  the  legendary  halts  of  Valhalla  and  the  chariots  of  the  gods  —  only  to  find  a 

clapped-Qut  Porsche  .  .  B 


And  in  those  rimes  were 
ion  no  wrought 

magnificent  adventures  from 
machines  of  sand  and 
copper.  IVith  mystk  writings 
and  cunning  they  made 
works  fa  seduce  the  eye  and 
occupy  the  thoughts  for 
endless  h/jurs.  Their  wares 
were  spread  far  and  wide  by 
pedtars  who  traversed  the 
land 

In  the  southland,  on  the 
fringes  of  civilisation,  one  nf 
these  sorcerers  forged  a 
mighty  adventure  with  alt 
manner  of  possibilities  — 
and  his  name  was  Peel*  And 
scribes  came  from  far  and 
wide  to  hear  his  wisdom  and 
write  it  down  in  the  language 
of  that  time.  Here  follows  the 

*igs  ofoneofiii 
scribes. 

Til  ire  ii  11  icj  imttFud  in  H«ll 
Tm  cat  1 1  lauthor  wtii 

South  -  in  Purtcy.  Catch 
the  I  rim  Way  from  London 
Bridge  and  the  great  diesel 
dragon  will  cany  you  through 
the  southern  wastes  of  the 
metropolis  to  the  neat 
suburbia  of  Croydon.  Beyond 
that  —  before  you  reach  the 
wilderness  —  you  hit  PurleyB 

Taxis  are  in  short  supply 
and  it  mean!  your  humble 
author  WM  about  an  hour  Sate 
arriving  al  ihe  Italian 
restaurant  in  Purley  where  I 
was  to  meet  John  end  Ian 
Peek  the  people  behind 
Valhalta 

Thar  Innfi  the  pin  Tltr  |in  me 
thf  wine  Tti  Jrliklbtiilie 

For  thorn  that  do  not  know 

Valhalta,  if  s  an  adventure 
game  with  animated  action. 
John  Peel  calls  ii  a  piece  of 
'Movie  Software1'  and  claims 
it  breaks  new  ground  m 
computer  games,  m*Thc 
Hohbit  was  a  milestone  in 
commercial  terms  but  until 
I  at  ha  Ha  came  along  there 
was  nothing  new    ,  ho  said. 

It  may  be  coincidence  thai 
the  dialogue  between  you  as 
the  player  and  the  Valhalla 
program  is  just  a  tittle  like 
Janet  and  John"  books   I 
never  broached  the  subject 
with  either  Jan  or  John.  But 
Janet  and  Johni&h  it  is.  The 
come -on  in  the  adverts  and 
images  surrounding  the  game 
in  aimed  very  much  auh>; 
sort  of  person  you  might  find 
in  a  second-hand  record  shop 


UNVEILING  VALHALLA 


looking  for  old  Genesis 
records;  the  software 
equivalent  of  heavy  metal 
music  with  visions  of  a 
fantasy  world  where 
every  thing  is  cither  good  or 
had  —  binary  morality, 

"You  start  midway 
between  good  and  evil", 
explains  Jan.  the  person 
responsible  for  what  she  calls 
the  characterisation  of 
Valhalta  mmYou  have  to 
convince  the  goodies  that  you 
are  worth  helping,  But  you 
can  take  another  route  and  be 
thoroughly  bad  and  get  the 
help  of  the  baddies.  There  arc 
hits  ol  possibilities/* 

TNf  kril|f  till  r»d  Ttior  glfi  it 
iht  l»l  tai  til  lit  lori. 

The  Peels  are  quick  to 
refute  any  actus 
Valhalla  exploits  the  less 
savoury  side  of  human  nature 
and  the  image  of  the  game  is. 
if  anything,  an  incorrect 
reflection  of  what  it's  about. 
"You  can  take  an  absolute 
baddy  like  Loki  and  change 


him  into  a  goody  —  thai  sort 
of  thing  does  not  need  to  be 
there  commercially".  Jan 
emphasised. 

John  readily  admits  thai 
the  product  fuels  lanta*}' 
and  draws  parallels  with 
television  soap  operas.  "We 
are  looking  for  TV  quality 
images  coupled  with  the 
interactive  potential  of  fl 
home  computer**,  he  said 
"We're  on  the  point  of  a 
revolution  in  leisure  art*  and 
Valhalta  is  one  way  it  can 
go/ k  adds  Jan. 

The  choice  of  the 
Spectrum  as  the  machine  to 
mpany  the  first  version 
of  Valhalta  ffUl  calculated 
one  "It  was  obvious  that  the 
Spectrum  was  going  to  be  a 
success  when  it  was 
launched.  We  wanted  to  cash 
in  on  the  arrival  of  a  mature 
micro",  John  explained. 

But  he  i*  fur  from  satisfied 
with  the  current  standard  of 
home  micros.  "The  history  of 
microcomputing  is  the  history 
of  the  adoption  of  appalling 
standards.  Take  graphics,  tor 
Instance.  People  want  good 


graphics  for  games  and  other 
things  and  it  takes  a  tot  of 
memory.  Despite  that,  the 
software  people  working  oil 
products  have  done  an 
ama/ing  job  with  what's 
there",  he  added. 

Too  ttticfc  the  drifloo   Toy  Mm 

lit  dragee  The  drigon  Imti. 

In  the  end.  like  anyone  else 
in  the  software  game',  the 
Peels  are  out  to  make  money 
and  Valhalla  promises  to  be 
a  source  of  great  nches  to 
[hem.  They  estimate  that  fcat 
the  end  of  the  day'  it  will 
gross  about  £5  million 
worldwide.  This  means  that 
they  can  now  afford  the 
trappings  and  status  symbols 
of  successful  software 
entrepreneyrs      including 
the  mandator}  black  Porsche. 

h  only  has  a  few  miles  on 
the  clock  because  we've  had 
trouble  with  it  since  we 
bought  it.  Well  have  to  keep 
our  old  Da! sun  on  the  road 
g  for  a  bit  longer",  John 

*  moaned. 

*  Looking  to  the  future,  their 
E  formula  to  buy  more 

m  P*  irsc  h  ook  to  ever 

*  more  sophisticated  software 
for  use  with  home  computers 
—  incorporating  things  like 
speech  recognition  when  it 
comes  along.  "People 
dismiss  games  as  trivia,  when 
in  fact  they  are  peat  source 
of  funding.  We  can  «e  great 
potential  beyond  the  son  of 
game  that's  sold  at  present 
and  that's  what  we  are  going 
for" enthused  John. 

Tier  bni|s  tht  lui  fit  tilt 
till  Think  you  Tbtr 

And  so  it  came  to  pats  that 
the  scribe  departed/torn  the 
land  beyond  the  great  river 
and  journeyed  north  on  the 
fron  tt'ay.  As  he  pondered 
on  what  that  had  been 
revealed  to  him  by  the 
wizards  of  Legend  he 
wondered  if  he  was  real  —  or 
fust  an  animated  special 
character  in  a  computer 
game. 

H'hen,  some  days  later  he 
was  wearing  the  magic 
sweatshirt  given  to  him  by 
the  wizards,  embossed  with 
the  word  'VALHALLA  \  and 
a  passer*  by  asked  "Who  are 
id  that  la  —  some  sort  of 
rock  hand?"  the  scribe 
merely  smiled,  for  he  knew 
then  that  he  was  reaLM* 


88 


HOW  TO 

TURN  YOUR 

SOFTWARE  INTO 

HARD  CASH, 


/ 


Taming  a  great  idea  into  a  profitable 

idea  isn't  easy. 

It  needs  skill  patience  and  shea  haid 
work.  But  to  be  really  profitable,  it  also 
Deeds  ilu-  backing  of  a  large,  respa  ie<i 
company, 

At  British  Telecom  we  are  now 
looking  for  writers  <  >f  games  and 

Rational  programs  Co  help  ns  launch  a 
now  and  exciting  range  <  >t  »  rftware. 


If  we  like  your  idea  we'll  send  you  a 
cheque  straigjitawa^  as  an  advan<  e  on 

• 

Then  we'll  packag  ram. 

advertise  it  and  distribute  ii  with  the 
and  attention  von  mora 

Britain's  b         companies. 

\\  like  to  turn  your  softv 
into  hart!  t  ash,  simply  send  your  pn 
im  cassette  or  disk,  u  < 


FIREFLY 

SOFTWARE 


Bntish  Teiet  < 

Wellington  I  louse,  I  fppei  St.  Martins!  m         ndon  W< 


Mi  1  Si  reef  Br*rKS#§tkjrtCKV  f>  itf  1*11  y  >29  8RL 

i  fO  *  £**—*#  !o  *n>c  Co^t  :w*.    ilia 
lOTftcorft* 

H  «Wffi 

. '    *»  program*  #*  tola  fttcorft   310 
!  LTD  t  t*m»  pf  i««i*  « 

■  ^ — _____________| 


JindS  A  E  i9in    v  6m  )  lor  FREE  dtitogut  ol 


&ffLj*u£tr*£{ 


*  Accc*vBwcijytird  No 

ITTTT 


■i»  «  comg^irn  M  imirr  ■htr